Project OKd to Aid Endangered Steelhead

A county water agency decided Wednesday to build a $2.3-million fish ladder at a Ventura River dam as part of an ambitious plan to keep the endangered steelhead trout from sliding to extinction.

The Casitas Municipal Water District board unanimously voted to pursue measures that would improve river conditions for the fish and enable it to reach prime spawning streams in the Topatopa Mountains above Ojai.

The action establishes the river as a focal point for steelhead recovery in Southern California, where the prized game fish once abounded before coming under pressure from dams, pollution and water diversions.

Casitas district officials acknowledged their actions are motivated by legal concerns as well as environmental worries. The district has spent the past two years discussing with federal officials measures to save steelhead, and officials acknowledge the threat of a lawsuit forces them to act sooner.

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One of those threatening suit is California Trout Inc., a pro-fishing group that contends Casitas’ management of the river and Robles Diversion Dam conflicts with the Endangered Species Act and is pushing steelhead to the brink.

“It’s an investment we need to make to protect the fish,” district General Manager John J. Johnson said. “We want to take the high road so if they do decide to take us to court, we can tell the judge we are taking every reasonable action to take care of the fish.”

But it appears very unlikely the Wednesday action will go far enough to fully restore the fish in the Ventura River or assuage critics of the agency, which manages the river to control floods and provide water to growers and residents in the Ojai Valley.

Cal Trout Executive Director Jim Edmondson described the decision by the district as “very encouraging,” but added he intends to file suit Feb. 19 if the agency fails to produce a comprehensive plan in writing to protect the fish. Cal Trout filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue in mid-December.

“These fish are under full protection of the Endangered Species Act and we’re very concerned about [actions that result in] take of the fish,” Edmondson said. “This is a trust-but-verify situation.”

One practice Cal Trout seeks to end is water diversions from the river to Lake Casitas, a practice Cal Trout says kills steelhead smolts trying to return to the ocean. But the district governing board rejected a staff proposal to suspend the practice for one year while the fish ladder is built. About 60,000 gallons have been diverted so far this year.

“Who’s going to get the water: the fish or the people?” Casitas board member Bill Hicks said. “Isn’t there some sort of maxim that the water should be used for the highest and best use?”

And costs for steelhead recovery clearly disturb some board members, who openly questioned how to pay for the fish ladder and other measures.

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The $2.3-million cost could be paid by state and federal grants or perhaps from a $100-million fund the Clinton administration designated last month for salmon recovery in the west, officials say. The district’s contribution to the project, however, could come from ratepayers.

“The people who live in this district are going to have to end up spending the money,” board member James W. Coultas said.

Johnson, however, said the district was going to have to build the fish ladder sooner or later. Fighting it and other steelhead recovery measures would only result in costly litigation, which in the end would incur greater expense and probably fail, he said.

The fish ladder at Robles Diversion Dam would consist of a series of underwater terraces to enable fish to climb the barrier and reach miles of high-quality spawning habitat on the north fork of Matilija Creek. Also, screens would be installed to steer smolts from the diversion intakes.

Steelhead proponents say changes at Robles Diversion Dam are a necessary precursor to the removal of the much larger Matilija Dam farther upstream.

That dam blocks about 20 miles of habitat once used by steelhead earlier this century.

The actions taken Wednesday by the Casitas district do not affect Matilija Dam.

Under the measures, the Casitas district, working with the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, will solicit proposals for the design and construction of the fish ladder, screens and steelhead monitoring system at Robles Diversion Dam.

Also, the board directed Johnson to work with federal officials to develop a comprehensive, long-term plan for steelhead management on the river.

At its core would be a “habitat conservation plan,” which permits limited destruction of steelhead to ensure that vital operations continue on the river, as long as actions are taken to offset the losses and promote the fish throughout its range, said Jim Lecky, assistant regional administrator for the Marine Fisheries Service.

Other measures that could be taken to benefit steelhead include replacing road crossings and culverts that block fish migration, cleaning tributaries to enhance habitat and raising steelhead in hatcheries for release to streams.

“They deserve a lot of credit for stepping forward to work on this,” Lecky said.

Ventura County has been at the heart of the steelhead debate since the southern population of the fish was declared endangered in August 1997.

Environmentalists last year launched a campaign to tear down Matilija Dam to benefit the fish.

Cal Trout plans to make the Ventura and Santa Clara rivers and the Santa Ynez River in Santa Barbara County ground zero in the fight to save the fish.

Last week the Marine Fisheries Service identified 140 waterways, including nine in Southern California, essential to steelhead recovery.