Senate OKs Los Padres Wilderness Bill

Long-debated legislation to protect one of Southern California’s few remaining wild rivers passed the U.S. Senate on Thursday and is headed for the desk of President Bush, aides to Sen. John Seymour said.

The Los Padres Wilderness Bill would prohibit dams on two of three proposed sites along Sespe Creek by designating 31.5 miles of the 55-mile creek as a wild and scenic river and setting another 10.5 miles aside for future study.

The bill also protects 152 miles of two other rivers in Monterey County and designates more than 400,000 acres of wilderness areas in Los Padres National Forest, including the 220,500-acre Sespe Wilderness in Ventura County.

The bill, which was authored in the House by Rep. Robert Lagomarsino (R-Ventura), was supported by both California senators, Democrat Alan Cranston and Republican Seymour.

It has drawn criticism from environmentalists who said its protection measures are too lax and business leaders who contended that it places too many restrictions on a potential source of fresh water.

“I hope President Bush will act quickly to sign the Los Padres Wilderness Bill into law,” Seymour said in a statement. A White House spokesman declined to comment on the President’s intentions.

As passed by the Congress, the bill leaves the bottom five miles of the creek open to development of a future dam near Oat Mountain, about five miles north of Fillmore.