FILLMORE, SANTA PAULA : Cities Question Proposal to Restore River

A proposed plan to restore the Santa Clara River has two cash-strapped cities concerned that they will be tapped to help pay the bill for a plan that would ultimately prevent them and their residents from using the river.

Members of Santa Paula and Fillmore city councils say they want to keep the river healthy and protect such endangered species as the three-spined unarmored stickleback, a tiny prehistoric fish that lives in the river.

But council members said they also want to preserve their rights to use the river to discharge treated sewage, to mine sand and gravel and to farm. They fear a new plan would only add to existing restrictions on those uses.

Fillmore Mayor Michael McMahan said existing regulations on sand and gravel mining have already caused silt to build up in the river, resulting in the near flooding of Fillmore’s sewage treatment plant in January.

“Our citizens are more concerned about our sewage plant being flooded than the unarmored stickleback,” McMahan said at a City Council meeting Tuesday.

At a Santa Paula council meeting earlier this month, council members had similar concerns about finances and restrictions.

“If they’re asking for money, we don’t have it,” Councilman Alfonso Urias said.

The plan, which is expected to take up to two years to complete and cost about $700,000, would recommend where stretches of the river should be preserved for wildlife, and which stretches should be farmed, mined or possibly, reinforced for flood control.

The plan’s 25-member steering committee includes representatives from Ventura and Los Angeles counties, riverfront cities, farmers, miners, environmentalists, state and federal biologists and landowners.

The California Coastal Conservancy has funded a portion of the plan, but organizers are still $300,000 short.

As a last resort, the cities and other entities may be asked to contribute, said Carl Blum, a Los Angeles County flood control official and co-chairman of the Santa Clara River Enhancement and Management Committee.

“We wouldn’t reject any money that members might wish to contribute, but first we’ll try to make up the difference with grants,” he said.

To support the plan, “the two city councils will have to be convinced that this will help us in the long run,” said Bert Rapp, Fillmore’s city engineer and a representative for both Fillmore and Santa Paula on the river committee. “When they know we’ll be solving problems with this plan, I have no doubt everyone will want to support it and even contribute money.”