County Gets Grant for Flood Channel

Ventura County received a $1.5-million federal grant to continue work on a flood control channel needed for the planned Cal State University west of Camarillo, county officials said Tuesday.

The funds from the U. S. Soil Conservation Service will enable the county to complete all but the final 1,300 feet of the 1.5-mile-long channel, said Arthur Goulet, director of public works.

The county will contribute about $95,000 toward the new section of the project, which extends a concrete ditch that drains the mountains above the campus another 2,700 feet.

The Soil Conservation Service has already contributed $1.5 million to the project, which is expected to cost about $5 million when it is completed, probably next year.

“We’re very close to the end of this project,” Goulet said.

The Santa Clara Drain project was conceived and designed in the 1970s, when concrete channels as opposed to more natural waterways were thought to be the best method of flood control.

“I don’t think we would conceive it the same way today,” he said. But to redesign the project would have set the timetable back by years, he said.

The drain or some other form of flood control is needed to keep the property at Central and Santa Clara avenues from being inundated during heavy winter rains.

Goulet said the county has also received a federal grant for design and engineering work to widen and improve Santa Clara and Central avenues. But he said funds for road construction are probably three years away due to federal funding cycles.

Cal State is purchasing one parcel and in condemnation proceedings for the remaining portion of 260 acres of lemon orchards chosen for the university.