Water Project Work in the Pipeline : Construction: Two Ventura County firms are preparing the way for the 42-mile Santa Barbara hookup.

Sometime in 1994, if all goes according to schedule, giant earthmovers and cranes will be busily at work building a 42-mile water pipeline from Vandenberg Air Force Base in northern Santa Barbara County to Lake Cachuma, near the city of Santa Barbara.

By the time it’s completed and state water is being relayed to Santa Barbara around mid-1996, the project, including a water-treatment plant in San Luis Obispo County, will have cost about $120 million.

Two Ventura County companies will get some of that. And, while their pieces of the financial pie will be relatively modest, the Ventura-based firms will play vital roles in the project being built by the Central Coast Water Authority.

The companies are Staal, Gardner & Dunne, a geotechnical engineering firm, and Hamner, Jewell & Associates, a real estate consultant to governmental agencies.

Staal, Gardner, which specializes in environmental cleanups as well as construction-related projects, will be paid about $250,000 to do soil and rock tests to monitor the stability of the pipeline route and the treatment plant site both before and during construction.

Staal, Gardner, founded in 1985, last year merged with another Ventura engineering firm, Fugro-McLelland (West). As a result, Staal, Gardner is now part of Fugro-McLelland N.V., a Dutch concern with worldwide annual revenues of more than $240 million.

Hamner, Jewell will receive about $165,000 to represent the water agency in buying right of way easements along the pipeline route.

Both Ventura firms are headed by 35-year-olds who relish the chance to work in the hills and valleys of Santa Barbara County--an area each of them loves.

“We’ve already drilled test holes around here,” said Timothy N. Dunne, Staal, Gardner’s president, showing a visitor where the firm’s engineers have obtained soil and rock samples in the hills south of Lake Cachuma, about 15 miles north of Santa Barbara.

The samples will be studied for any signs of instability, Dunne said. If tests indicate that the area along any part of the proposed route is unstable, the route will detour around the problem areas.

Among other hazards, Dunne and his fellow engineers are especially concerned about any earthquake faults or landslide areas that might turn up, no matter how ancient they might be.

“We’re studying the area any way we possibly can--from analyzing rocks and soil to studying historic aerial photographs to reading up on the history of the region,” Dunne said.

Geological engineers don’t have to look far from the scene for a classic example of the dangers inherent in locating a major project on an untested site.

On March 12, 1928, 450 people, many of them in Ventura County, were killed when the St. Francis Dam collapsed, sending billions of gallons of water rushing to the sea from San Francisquito Canyon in northwestern Los Angeles County.

For years, the blame for the disaster was placed on the dam’s architect, William Mulholland. Recently, however, it’s been found that Mulholland’s design wasn’t to blame. The dam had been built on the site of an ancient landslide.

Hamner, Jewell, headed by Lillian D. Jewell, a former real estate broker, doesn’t have to worry about unstable soil. Instead, the small firm, which was established in 1977, is paid to see that negotiations over rights of way between the water authority and landowners along the route don’t collapse.

“Despite the length of the project, we’ll need to obtain easements from only about 100 property owners,” Jewell said. “There are so few because many of the parcels along the route are quite large. We’re dealing with ranches that are 1,000 acres--even larger in some cases.”

Jewell and two aides plan to contact each property owner, either by phone or in person. Right now, she’s having independent appraisals made before making offers to the owners.

“Some people are quite alarmed at the thought of granting 60-foot easements through their property. In most cases, that’s the width we’re asking for. But we explain to them that this is an underground pipeline, and that in most cases, once it’s built, the property can be returned to its original use and appearance,” she explained.

Jewell said there’s no set formula for setting the price paid for acquiring rights of way. “That’s why we have independent appraisals made. We base our offers on each parcel’s fair market value. In a place like Solvang, for instance, the price would probably be considerably higher than it would be in a rural area.”

Once a figure is agreed upon, Jewell’s company draws up the contract and does all other paperwork before placing the deal in escrow.

Jewell said property owners have the right to resist the authority’s offers in court, but that it seldom comes to that. “Usually, we find that if we keep communicating, we’ll reach an agreement.”

As part of the water pipeline deal, property owners must agree not to endanger the conduit by building structures or planting trees or vineyards in the right-of-way.

The water agency, for its part, may make changes in its planned route if there’s a well or structure in the way.

Jewell said almost all of her four-person firm’s work is done for public agencies. In addition to the water authority, recent clients have included the city of Ventura (for acquiring a downtown site for the state Court of Appeal), the Port Hueneme Redevelopment Agency (for housing and other projects), the city of San Luis Obispo (for a bridge-widening project) and Spanish Hills Development Co., which is developing a country club and home sites in Camarillo.

“Most of our business comes from word of mouth, one agency talking to another agency. I also bid on projects when I hear about them.”

Staal, Gardner is working on the water project as a subcontractor to James M. Montgomery Consulting Engineers Inc. of Pasadena.

Dunne is president of both Staal, Gardner and Fugro-McLelland (West), which have a combined staff of 120 throughout California and total revenues of about $13 million.

The companies’ clients include the Port of Los Angeles, Exxon Co. USA and the Ventura County Sanitation District.

The Central Coast Water Authority is also building another stretch of the pipeline in San Luis Obispo County that will complete the 104-mile State Water Project Coastal Aqueduct.

“Both companies have been very thorough and very responsive to our schedule,” said Bruce Burnworth, the water agency’s deputy director. “Staal, Gardner has already located some landslide areas that will cause us to modify our route.”

If necessary, he added, Jewell and her aides are ready to head for Santa Barbara County’s backcountry again, seeking new rights of way.