COUNTYWIDE : Lagomarsino’s Sespe Bill Clears House

A bill that would protect 31 1/2 miles of the 55-mile Sespe Creek but leave two proposed dam sites open for development passed the House of Representatives on a unanimous vote Tuesday.

The Los Padres Wilderness Bill, sponsored by Rep. Robert Lagomarsino (R-Ventura), also designates nearly 400,000 acres of national forest as wilderness areas, including the 220,500-acre Sespe Wilderness in the rugged backcountry of Ventura County.

The bill now moves to the Senate, where a nearly identical bill is also being considered.

“We passed the bill twice out of the House last year, but it was killed in the Senate,” said John Doherty, a spokesman in Lagomarsino’s Washington office. “So we’re hoping that the third time will be the charm.”

All parties, including California Sens. John Seymour and Alan Cranston, who co-sponsored the Senate version, agree on most aspects of the legislation. So far, the Senate version of the bill remains silent on how much of the Sespe to protect through federal “wild and scenic river” status.

Environmentalists and Cranston have argued that all 55 miles of the Sespe, the last wild and undammed river in Southern California, should be preserved under federal wild and scenic river status.

But Lagomarsino and water interests say the federal government should not preclude the options of future generations in Ventura County that may need the estimated 10,000 to 20,000 acre-feet of water that the Sespe could yield each year.

Seymour has not committed to either position.

The senators have been in negotiations since hearings were held on the bill in October and are expected to come to an agreement on the Sespe issue this month.