By Laura Mecoy
Sacramento Bee
October 4, 2005
LOS
ANGELES - A recent vote to provide $2 million in state funds
to develop final plans for tearing down the Matilija Dam moved
this long-awaited ecological restoration program one step
closer to reality.
But the cost of recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
could cause even further delays in a decade-long fight to
demolish a dam that has wreaked its own havoc on Ventura
County's beaches and steelhead populations.
At 198 feet at its highest point, the Matilija Dam, located
near the Ventura River's headwaters northwest of Ojai, is one
of the largest dams ever considered for removal.
 Tearing
it down would set a precedent for future dam removals and add
fuel to a growing movement to restore habitat and fisheries by
eliminating these structures blocking America's rivers and
streams.
"This is something that, hopefully, is going to lead the
way and show some of the mistakes we have made in the past can
be repaired and we can get back some of the natural assets of
these rivers that have been lost," said Paul Jenkin,
Matilija Coalition program coordinator.
Around the country, 185 dams have been removed since 1999, and
56 more are slated for demolition this year, according to the
advocacy group American Rivers. Most are much smaller than the
Matilija (pronounced Ma-til-a-ha).
The $2 million that the California Ocean Protection Council
recently agreed to provide to the Matilija Dam project would
help pay for the engineering plans to remove the structure and
accommodate a free-flowing river.
Another $4 million in federal money is needed for the
engineering, and the federal government is supposed to pay
most of the $130 million bill for construction and removal.
But the enormous cost of repairing levees and other
water-related projects destroyed by the two recent Gulf Coast
hurricanes is expected to soak up most of the available water
project money for years to come.
"The funding situation is going to be really tight moving
forward for all kinds of restoration projects," said
Elizabeth Maclin, director of the American Rivers dam removal
program.
Even so, Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, said the
state should continue on the Matilija project.
"We have a facility that doesn't serve any purpose other
than retaining sediment that ought to be on the beaches,"
he said.
The 58-year-old Matilija Dam no longer provides much water
supply or flood control because 6 million cubic yards of silt,
gravel and dirt have collected behind it.
Its face is laced with cracks because it was built with faulty
materials. Construction crews removed part of the concrete
along the top of the structure in 1965 and again in 1978 to
guard against a potential collapse.
The dam blocks the southern steelhead trout from some of its
best spawning grounds, contributing to the steep decline in
populations that caused the native fish to be declared a
federally endangered species in 1997.
The Army Corps of Engineers, in its studies of the project,
said the Ventura River once supported 4,000 to 5,000 spawning
adult steelhead, and now it supports just 100. The study said
removing the Matilija Dam would open up more than 17 miles of
steelhead habitat.
Demolishing the dam would also restore eroding Ventura County
beaches by freeing up trapped sand and gravel and restoring
its natural flow to the shore, the Corps of Engineers said.
The agency determined about 4 million cubic yards of sand,
gravel and sediment would flow into the Ventura River and onto
the Ventura County beaches after the dam's removal. It
estimates the beaches and the riverbed would be restored to
their pre-dam states within 10 years of the dam's destruction.
"The Matilija Dam removal is unusual in that
aspect," American Rivers' Maclin said. "You don't
often see a river carrying that amount of sand."
Tearing down the dam without any other action would cause a
catastrophic flow of silt and sand into the river, especially
in a region where there are long periods of drought followed
by flash floods.
So the Corps of Engineers plans to remove a third of the 6
million cubic yards of sediments behind the dam.
It then plans to carve a 100-foot channel and place the sand
and gravel on the banks. The agency expects the river would
carry these sediments downstream over a 20-year period.
To guard against downstream flooding, the corps' plan calls
for building levees along portions of the Ventura River and
modifying some bridges. Plus, it plans to build eight miles of
recreational trails and two groundwater wells to replace lost
water supplies.
The project is supposed to be completed in 2012, but funding
delays could push it further into the future.
These types of dam removals have been gaining ground around
the country as more of these structures reach the end of their
estimated 50-year life spans. About a quarter of the 75,000
structures on the nation's dam inventory are more than 50
years old, and 85 percent will reach that age by 2020,
according to American Rivers.
"At Matilija, we are doing something that has never been
done before," Jenkin of the Matilija Coalition said.
"In terms of its precedent and what it is going to
accomplish for this watershed and other watersheds, it is a
huge project."
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