House OKs $22.7 Million for County Projects

Funds for key environmental and flood-protection projects for Ventura County won overwhelming approval Monday when the House of Representatives passed a major spending bill.

The Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, which also contains funding for projects in Northern California and around the nation, designates more than $22.7 million to help solve some of the most pressing natural resource problems confronting the county.

The bill earmarks money to study removal of Matilija Dam near Ojai, repair storm-damaged jetties at Port Hueneme and begin development of a massive water conservation project in the sprawling Calleguas Creek watershed to benefit residents and farms in the east county.

“These projects are crucial to the health and safety of Ventura County residents and the vitality of the area’s economy and environment,” said Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), who pressed for many of the projects to be included in the bill.

In spreading the wealth from a Congress awash in budget surpluses, the spending satisfies demands to address long-awaited needs around the county. From back-country mountain areas to the coast to the sprawling suburban valleys, the bill has something for most communities across the county.

For example, $14.8 million is designated for Santa Paula to pay for most of a three-year flood control project that has been 20 years in the making. Much of the town, precariously positioned at the confluence of the Santa Clara River and Santa Paula Creek, is vulnerable to flooding. During drenching El Nino-powered storms of 1997-98, 2,000 residents were evacuated.

A first phase of flood-control work for Santa Paula was completed last year after environmental concerns, which long delayed the project, were satisfied. The second phase, now underway to deepen the creek and install retaining walls from California 126 to near Woodland Drive, is scheduled to be completed by 2001, said Hugh Claybaugh, division engineer for the Ventura County Flood Control District. The funds will go to the Army Corps of Engineers, which is doing the work.

When the project is completed, it will free Santa Paula residents of paying $600-a-year in flood control insurance, Gallegly said.

“I think it’s needed. Santa Paula has been far too long in this very dangerous flood situation,” said Ron Bottorff of Friends of the Santa Clara River.

Along Calleguas Creek, the bill designates $1.5 million for projects to use treated waste water more efficiently in communities from Simi Valley to Thousands Oaks to Camarillo. The key to the project is new plumbing to use treated waste water instead of ground water and imported water on farmland, said Don Kendall, general manager at the Calleguas Municipal Water District.

“This is very good news,” Kendall said. ‘We need to construct a backbone system that allows better use of these waste-water facilities. It’s going to keep water rates lower.”

A coalition of environmentalists, surfers, anglers and politicians advocates removal of Matilija Dam in the rugged back country above Ojai. The crumbling concrete edifice held back floods and stored water when it was built in 1948, but now it is filled with mud and is blamed for ruining beaches and destroying steelhead trout populations on the Ventura River.

In July, representatives from Ventura County, environmental groups and the U. S. Department of Interior met to plan a study that will determine whether it makes environmental and economic sense to remove the 198-foot-high dam. The bill that the House approved Monday contains $100,000 to begin that study.

“That’s absolutely fantastic. This is a down payment on coming up with some answers and some solutions,” said Jim Edmondson, conservation director of California Trout.

Other county projects that the bill would fund include:

* $2.7 million to repair the east and west storm jetties at the Port of Hueneme. An additional $400,000 is earmarked to deepen the port, the only one on the central coast.

* $2.9 million to dredge sand from Ventura’s harbor entrance and $100,000 to study moving sand from the harbor for shipping safety. An additional $170,000 is designated to replenish sand and dredge Channel Islands Harbor.

* $100,000 to study the environmental impacts of sediment buildup in Mugu Lagoon and alternatives for restoring the estuary.

The bill also contains $60 million to continue environmental restoration work on the California Bay-Delta ecosystem. The delta provides freshwater to 22 million people in the state, including residents in Ventura County.

The House on Monday night passed a conference version of the bill by a vote of 327 to 87. The bill goes back to the Senate, where a similar version was approved in June.

It is expected to be approved in two weeks and then sent to the White House, Gallegly said in a prepared statement.