3 Agencies Coming Together in Santa Clara River Valley Study

Ventura County is expected to join in an $8.2-million study aimed at developing flood, water protection and other environmental policies to better deal with growth in the Santa Clara River Valley watershed.

Local officials would partner with Los Angeles County and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to conduct the three-year study, which would also focus on erosion, sedimentation problems and wildlife habitats.

“Nothing of this scale has ever been attempted in this county,” said Jeff Pratt, head of the Ventura County Watershed Protection District. “This is going to allow us to give better information to the policymakers and allow them to make better decisions.”

The corps would fund 50% of the project, with the Los Angeles and Ventura county watershed districts sharing the remaining cost. About 60% of the 84-mile Santa Clara River runs through Ventura County. Water from the river is used, in part, to recharge groundwater and as irrigation for agriculture.

The county would pay its share for the study from property taxes, land development fees and user fees, Pratt said.

Ventura County Supervisor Kathy Long, whose district includes Santa Clara River Valley, has been working to bring the project to fruition for two years.

“It’s historic in that you have two counties and the Army corps working together on one of the last rustic rivers in Southern California,” she said Thursday.

With continued development pressures, she said, the project would “give us the modeling dynamics to allow decision-makers to say, ‘That’s not where we want to go, because of impacts to habitats, flooding issues, quality of water.’ ”

The area to be studied includes about 1,600 square miles from Acton in Los Angeles County to the ocean. The watershed area encompasses not only the Santa Clara River but the tributaries that feed into it, including the Sespe, Santa Paula and Piru creeks.

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors, acting in its role as members of the watershed protection district, is expected to vote on the partnership study at its meeting Tuesday.