County OKs $1.2 Million for Flood Control : Casitas Springs: Despite environmentalists’ concerns, the board decides San Antonio Creek must be widened to protect homes from winter storms.

Despite environmentalists’ concerns that enlarging San Antonio Creek will harm the waterway’s ecosystem, county leaders on Tuesday approved a $1.2-million flood control project that Casitas Springs residents say is needed to protect their homes from approaching winter storms.

The plan calls for removing sediment and widening the creek along a 2 1/4-mile stretch surrounded by 30 homes between the Ventura River and Fraser Lane. Earlier this year, January and March tempests caused a swollen creek to stray from its course, flooding properties and forcing residents to evacuate.

The disaster, officials said, left behind sediment and an infestation of vegetation that impede the creek’s flow and increase the danger of flooding.

County Supervisor Susan Lacey, who represents Casitas Springs, told the more than 30 residents and environmentalists who turned out for Tuesday’s meeting of the county Board of Supervisors that the work was necessary to reduce the threat to human life in the area.

“Yes [the creek] will be ugly for a period of time,” Lacey said. “No, I don’t believe that there will be forever after damage to . . . [the creek]. I personally don’t want to hear that we had to go in and could only bring part of a family out.”

The board’s unanimous vote capped a lengthy and often emotional meeting, and Casitas Springs residents spent the aftermath chatting excitedly and hugging each other.

“It’s a great, great relief for all of us whose houses were threatened,” said Rachel Pratt, a 52-year-old farmer who lives on Creek Road about 200 yards from San Antonio Creek.

But project critics said Tuesday that county officials raced to a decision with little regard for the environment because they simply wanted to meet a funding deadline.

The county is eligible for $605,000 in special emergency funding from the Natural Resources Conservation District, but that offer expires Dec. 18. The county Flood Control District also will put off other planned flood mitigation projects and provide more than $500,000 for the work.

The supervisors declared the flood control an emergency project, which means the county does not have to complete an environmental impact report.

“This whole project has moved too fast and is poorly thought out,” said Alasdair Coyne, conservation director for Keep the Sespe Wild. “The project must be stopped here today.”

Coyne and other environmentalists said the excavation could spoil a habitat for steelhead trout and annihilate vegetation. Coyne also said the task of removing an estimated 137,000 cubic yards of sediment and debris from the stream bed would take about 10,000 dump truck trips over Creek Road to do the job.

Coyne and others asked the supervisors to take the project at a slower pace and further study the costs involved, which county officials said had not been finalized. Project opponents also asked the county to conduct a full environmental impact report and downplayed the emergency nature of the project.

“We are dealing with a wholly anticipated event, which is the advent of the rainy season,” said John Buse, an attorney representing the Friends of the Ventura River.

Arthur Goulet, the director of the county public works agency and administrator of the county Flood Control District, said swift action was necessary to protect residents from the threat of disaster. County experts say there is a 20% chance of a large storm that would cause substantial damage to at least four houses.

“It’s true we haven’t studied all the costs,” Goulet said. “This is an emergency project.”

Goulet said the flood control work would be done in an environmentally sensitive manner and that vegetation would regenerate in a short time.

“We are not talking about a structural solution--no reinforced concrete,” Goulet said.

The flood control project ends more than six months of meetings between county officials and concerned residents. The county still must get approval from the Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies to proceed.

If the project goes forward, it will not be the first time the creek has been enlarged--its channel was last cleaned out in 1969. Goulet said the work would prepare the creek for a 25-year storm, or one that has a 4% chance of occurring in any given year.

Starr Hungate, a Creek Road resident whose home suffered more than $30,000 damage during last year’s winter storms, echoed the fears of many residents, concerns that appeared to resonate with the county leaders.

“I want you to know that I am scared,” Hungate told the supervisors. “I am scared at what may happen to my home and my neighbor’s homes. I can only see this as an emergency.”