Sespe Creek Bill Clears Final Big Hurdle : Water: The plan to permanently protect 31.5 miles moves to the Senate floor. The President could sign it by summer.

Acontroversial bill that would prevent dams from being built on most of Ventura County’s only remaining wild river overcame what is believed to be its last major hurdle on Wednesday, and now moves to the Senate floor.

The Los Padres Wilderness bill, which designates 31.5 miles of the 55-mile Sespe Creek as a wild and scenic river and sets another 10.5 miles aside for future study, passed the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee with no amendments to the House version of the bill.

The bill also puts more than 400,000 acres in three counties in the Los Padres National Forest into wilderness designation and protects an additional 152 miles of two other rivers in Santa Barbara and Monterey counties.

With the support of both California senators, Democrat Alan Cranston and Republican John Seymour, and no substantial opposition, the bill is expected to be approved by the Senate as part of a consent calendar in June, congressional aides said.

The bill, authored by Rep. Robert Lagomarsino (R-Ventura), has already passed the House and could be ready for the President’s signature as early as this summer, aides said.

“Some say the bill would allow construction of a dam on the Sespe,” Lagomarsino said Wednesday. “It just doesn’t prohibit a dam.”

Lagomarsino, who grew up in Ventura and fished backcountry streams and hiked the hillsides as a boy, said he wanted to preserve the area so that his grandchildren could share the same experiences.

But members of the Keep the Sespe Wild Committee criticized Lagomarsino for leaving a portion of the river open to future dam development.

“It’s a tremendous disappointment that Congressman Lagomarsino has remained unmoved by the outpouring of public and civic support for preserving the Sespe Creek’s pristine natural state from the threat of dams,” said Alasdair Coyne, conservation director for the committee.

Coyne said the committee was “pleased to see the creation of nearly 450 square miles of wilderness for Ventura County.”

Carolyn Leavens, a Ventura rancher and community activist on water and other issues, called the bill’s progress “good news.” She said no one in the county has any plans now to build dams on the Sespe. But the bill keeps some options open.

“It means that we won’t have to fight the wild and scenic designation 20 years down the line when we get to the point where we need” water from a dam on the Sespe, Leavens said. “We’re going to need more water in Southern California. This is our ace in the hole.”

The bill sets aside for future study 10.5 miles beginning at the river’s headwaters near the Santa Barbara County line in Ventura County’s northwest corner. That segment would be protected from development for at least six years while the area is studied for possible future designation as wild and scenic.

That portion of the river includes what government officials and water interests have identified as the Cold Spring dam site, about three miles east of the Sespe’s intersection with California 33. A dam at that location would produce about 10,000 acre-feet of water a year, enough water for about 20,000 families.

The next 31.5-mile segment of the river from Rock Creek to a spot just north of Oat Mountain would be permanently protected from development under wild and scenic river designation. That segment includes the proposed Topatopa dam site, which could also produce about 10,000 acre-feet of water a year.

The bill withholds protection from the remaining stretch of the river south of Oat Mountain through the city of Fillmore to the Sespe’s confluence with the Santa Clara River.

That leaves open the possibility of a dam at the Oat Mountain site, about five miles north of Fillmore. A dam at the Oat Mountain site would yield about 8,000 acre-feet of water a year.

Lagomarsino said that any dam would probably come to a public vote before it was developed.

“The mere fact that it would have a wild and scenic river above it would have some influence on whether a dam would be approved there,” he said.