$21.6 Million Earmarked for 2 Navy Bases

Ventura County’s two naval bases would get $21.6 million to update missile testing and remote ship maintenance facilities under President Clinton’s final proposed budget.

The $1.8-trillion federal budget, which Congress must still approve, also includes $5.5 million to put the finishing touches on an ongoing project to earthquake-proof Casitas Dam near Ventura.

“It is encouraging that the president has recommended these projects for Ventura County,” said Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley). “But this is just the first step in the funding process.”

Because of basic philosophical differences between the White House and Congress, the final budget will probably be much different than the one sent to Capitol Hill on Monday. In general, however, Congress has been more willing, not less, to spend money on defense than Clinton.

Point Mugu’s naval weapons testing facility would get $11.4 million under the budget. The money would be used to add a 30,000-square-foot wing to its Sea Range Operations Center, which was built in 1953, and bring the building up to federal earthquake, energy and fire standards.

“When you . . . do this kind of work, it’s almost imperative that you stay up-to-date and modern with your equipment,” base spokeswoman Doris Lance said.

She said the base has been trying to find money for the project for nearly a decade.

With its banks of television screens, radar equipment and jet cockpits used to control aircraft during missile tests, the building is the backbone of the base’s 36,000-square-mile testing range off the Pacific Coast.

The improvements will allow some workers at the testing facility to vacate trailers behind the building and move under one roof, Lance said.

Just north of Point Mugu, the Port Hueneme Division of the Naval Service Warfare Center would receive $10.2 million to build a 72,400-square-foot building. From there, engineers and logistical workers would communicate with naval ships throughout the world, trouble-shooting problems at sea.

Workers now provide those services out of 16 trailer-like structures built in 1967. The temporary buildings were meant to last five years and will eventually be razed, said John Chaudier, a facilities team leader for the command.

He estimates that combining work forces will save $3.4 million a year in maintenance and other costs.

At Casitas Dam, which blocks Coyote Creek to create Lake Casitas north of Ventura, the Clinton administration budget would set aside $5.5 million to finish off a $40-million effort to strengthen the structure.

The Bureau of Reclamation has already widened the top wall of the dam from 40 feet to 110 feet in an effort to bolster the dam should an earthquake occur. The agency has also replaced soft portions of sediment at the dam’s foundation and built an earthen berm to stabilize the structure.

The $5.5 million in the proposed budget will likely be the last federal funding the project will see as work wraps up, said Gary Egan, regional dam safety officer for the Bureau of Reclamation.

Completion of the project is good news to the 16,000 residents who live in the dam’s shadow, said Marian Echeverria, spokeswoman for the bureau.

“They would be vulnerable should anything affect the stability of the dam,” she said.

Other Ventura County projects proposed in the administration’s budget include:

* The Army Corps of Engineers would get $150,000 to determine if it is ecologically and economically feasible to remove Matilija Dam to help save the endangered southern steelhead.

* About $3 million would be spent to replenish sand and dredge Channel Islands Harbor.

* Some $2.64 million would go to dredging Ventura Harbor’s entrance and study the feasibility of moving sand for shipping safety.

* About $250,000 would be used to study the environmental impacts of the buildup of sediment in Mugu Lagoon and find ways to restore the estuary there.

* A Calleguas Creek water recycling project would receive $500,000.