Last Payment Is Celebrated Atop Dam : Milestone: The earthen Santa Felicia Dam is scene of a lunch given by United Water Conservation District--40 years after project was started.

Civic leaders and engineers who sent earthmovers lurching into action 40 years ago to build Santa Felicia Dam and create Lake Piru celebrated the last payment Tuesday on the $10.9-million loan to build the imposing structure.

The dam, which blocked the flow of Piru Creek and captured water to replenish underground basins in the Santa Clara River Valley and the Oxnard Plain, has stored more than 1 million acre-feet of water since its completion in 1955.

The same 200-foot-tall earthen dam, which stretches about 1,300 feet across the canyon from which the dam takes its name, would have cost a formidable $175 million to build today, estimated Frederick J. Gientke, general manager of United Water Conservation District. The bonds to build the dam, distribution system and spreading grounds to replenish the aquifers were paid off by tax assessments on property owners within United’s district, which stretches from Piru to the Oxnard Plain.

“It’s refreshing to be able to reduce taxes instead of raising them,” said Gientke, whose district was host for a luncheon on top of the dam for about 75 people.

But more important, Gientke said, Lake Piru has filled an essential need for the over-pumped ground water basins beneath some of the county’s most fertile agricultural fields.

“Without the dam, the valley and the plain would probably be paved over because agriculture couldn’t pay for water that cost $500 per acre-foot,” said Gientke, estimating the cost to import water. An acre-foot is enough water to supply two families of four for a year.

Santa Felicia stores the water, which United periodically releases into Piru Creek. It then flows into the Santa Clara River and is diverted at the Freeman Dam at Saticoy into spreading grounds. There, the water soaks into the ground to replenish aquifers and keep seawater from moving into the freshwater supply.

At the time the dam was built, residents in nearby Piru were concerned about its safety, former general manager and project engineer William Price Jr. recalled Tuesday.

“The people of Piru were nervous because they were in the path of the water after the St. Francis Dam failed,” he said, referring to the 1928 disaster in which 385 people in the Santa Clara River Valley died. “So they would come out and watch to see how it was being built, and that made them feel better.”

Price said 2 or 3 feet of dirt and other materials were put in place and heavy machinery would compact it before the next layer was added.

“This kind of dam is better for this area because it’s kind of plastic in a way,” he said. Earthen, as opposed to concrete dams “kind of shrug their shoulders” and flex with the earth’s movement.

Santa Felicia survived the Northridge earthquake as well as the 1987 Whittier and the 1971 Sylmar quakes without damage, officials said.

“It’s been remarkably stable,” said John Dickenson, current engineering manager for United. “You would expect a dam this size to settle about one foot, but it hasn’t even settled one-hundredth of a foot.”

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Regardless of the type of construction or whether local residents would oppose it, some environmentalists and biologists contacted Tuesday doubted whether such a project could be built at the site with today’s strict environmental regulations.

Not only would it become a battleground as one of the last free-flowing rivers in Southern California, but it would also be one of the last steelhead trout runs in the region, they said.

Dennis McEwan, the steelhead specialist for the California Department of Fish and Game, said if such a dam were built today, his department and other agencies would impose many more constraints to ensure that such species as steelhead could continue to survive.

“But back then, those things were not taken into consideration,” said McEwan, whose father, Sheldon, worked on Santa Felicia as a dam safety engineer for the state.

Steve Evans, conservation director for the nationwide Friends of the Rivers, tries to make sure such considerations are taken into account today.

“Before they built that dam, Piru Creek was free-flowing to the Santa Clara River,” Evans said. “The construction of that dam blocked off the steelhead runs, which is why the Sespe Creek is still so important.” Later, Pyramid Dam, 15 miles to the north, was also built on Piru Creek.

Now, the U.S. Forest Service has recommended that Piru Creek be considered for federal Wild and Scenic River status, which would protect it from any future development.

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Evans said the Friends of the Rivers joined the battle against building a dam on Sespe Creek in Los Padres National Forest during the late 1980s and early 1990s, in part because it is one of the few Southern California rivers that still support steelhead, which has been proposed for endangered species status.

But a dam on the Sespe came very close to being built along with Santa Felicia Dam 40 years ago, said former board director Fred M. Stewart, a rancher who served on the United board from 1953 to 1959.

An $18.5-million bond issue in 1952 that would have paid for both Santa Felicia and a dam at the Topatopa site, now off-limits to dams after it received Wild and Scenic River status in legislation passed in 1992. That bond issue failed to garner the required two-thirds majority by 17 votes, Stewart said.

One year later, the board of directors asked voters to approve a $10.9-million bond issue for Santa Felicia alone, which passed by a very narrow margin, he said.

“All of the projects authorized by the voters in 1953 have long ago been completed, and I’m pleased to say are now fully paid for,” Stewart said.

The $10.9 million covered the total cost to build the dam, distribution system and spreading grounds.

During the time the dam was being built, it was an all-encompassing project, said former directors and their families on hand to accept plaques of appreciation from the district.

Helen Pidduck, daughter of then United General Manager Gene Kimball, said her mother frequently complained of the time her husband spent on the project.

“My mother, who was a perfect lady, was heard to refer to Santa Felicia as that ‘damn dam,” Pidduck told the crowd gathered for Tuesday’s dam-top ceremony.

But Pidduck’s son, Richard, a citrus and avocado grower in Santa Paula, said the dam has saved many a farmer over the years.

“The releases from the dam have helped keep seawater from intruding into the aquifers,” he said. “Without it, there would have been severe problems for farmers on the Oxnard Plain.”

Earl McPhail, county agriculture commissioner, summed up Santa Felicia’s benefits succinctly.

“There would be a lot of dry wells out there,” he said. “Some people would be sucking air.”

Santa Felicia Dam Completed: 1955

Cost: $5.5 million to build the dam, plus $5.4 million for a water distribution system and spreading grounds to replenish ground water supplies.

Dimensions: 200 feet high by 1,300 feet across.

Construction material: Primarily earth

Capacity: 88,000 acre-feet

Coverage: 88 acres

Visitors: More than 15 million people have visited the lake and its recreation areas since 1955.