FLOOD-CONTROL OVERHAUL SET OFFICIALS WANT TO UPGRADE VENTURA COUNTY SYSTEM.

Byline: Eric Leach Staff Writer

SIMI VALLEY - After some of the heaviest rains in history, officials are looking at long-range plans for improving Ventura County's flood- control system, hit by an estimated $38 million in damage this year.

Officials are unsure whether they will receive enough federal and state aid to deal with the devastation from the record rains in January and February, which killed 13 people in Ventura County and did an estimated $256 million in damage to both public and private property throughout the county.

To help clear out and restore the flood-control system, county officials hope to get up to $30 million in aid from the federal government and $5.82 million from state funding. But there is a chance they won't get the full amounts.

``The Federal Emergency Management Agency is telling us we might not get as much as we expect,'' said Jeff Pratt, director of the Ventura County Watershed Protection District. ``We might be losing as much as $20 million, which means some things will have to go unrepaired. We don't have $20 million for these things, so we're trying to get the really big priority health and safety issues taken care of.''

``We were overwhelmed,'' said Pratt of this year's devastation.

Normally, county officials would want to clear flood-control channels, debris basins, storm drains and other facilities to make them ready to handle what is called a ``100-year flood.''

Officials define a 100-year flood as a flood that has a 1 percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year. It is not the flood that will occur once every 100 years, and could occur more than once in a relatively short period of time.

Without enough funding, Ventura County officials could be forced to clear out only enough sediment and debris to allow some channels to handle five- or 10-year floods, Pratt said.

Greg Renick, a spokesman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Office of Emergency Services, said state and federal officials are working with Ventura County to provide aid.

``We are continuing to work to see that the agencies affected by the storms receive all the federal and state disaster assistance that they are eligible for under the law,'' he said.

Between 1999 and 2004 there was minimal flood damage in Ventura County, but the costs mounted dramatically because of the wildfires of 2003 and the flooding this year.

In most areas of Ventura County the storms of January and February did not even come close to bringing 100-year floods, but 80-year flood conditions were reached in the Happy Camp Canyon area north of Simi Valley and Moorpark - an area burned over in the 2003 brush fires.

In Simi Valley, one of the most costly and high-priority flood-control projects this year is the multimillion-dollar cleanup of debris that built up over the last couple of years behind Las Llajas Dam after the fires and rain.

Officials have been waiting for the muck behind the dam to dry out before it is removed with as many as 300 truck trips a day along Yosemite Avenue and the Ronald Reagan Freeway.

The dam at the mouth of Las Llajas Canyon, just north of the Simi Hills Golf Course near Tapo Street and Yosemite Avenue and the Marr Ranch, protects the city from flooding.

Tom Lagier, manager of the operation and maintenance division of the Watershed Protection District, said hauling operations should begin this month. ``We have to have a clean period here weatherwise. For the safety of the community we need to get that material removed.''

The Watershed Protection District has prepared a detailed look at the spots vulnerable to flooding throughout the entire county in an effort to upgrade the system through the year 2029.

Even after the most recent flood damage is repaired, it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade the system to handle a 100- year flood in many areas.

Members of the Ventura County Board of Supervisors acting as directors of the Watershed Protection District are scheduled to study these future needs and consider how to make improvements over the next 25 years.

The 25-year planning was started by the district before this year's storms, but the effort was stepped up as a result of the recent flooding.

The supervisors will look at the needed work, how it is prioritized and examine alternatives for building and improving flood-control channels and even possibly limiting development along floodplains.

In the Simi Valley, Moorpark, Camarillo and Thousand Oaks areas along the Calleguas Creek watershed, the county has identified 87 projects that should be completed over the next 25 years at an estimated cost of $306.8 million. But officials say available revenues will probably amount to only about $120 million, which would cover about 22 of these projects.

In the cities of Simi Valley and Moorpark there are numerous spots along the Arroyo Simi and channels that feed into the arroyo that are deemed inadequate to handle a 100-year flood.

In Thousand Oaks there are also a number of flood-control channels that are clogged or simply too small to handle such a major flood.

In many of these cases, water could spill out into residential areas, causing serious damage, according to the county's assessment.

Eric Leach, [phone]

eric.leach(at)dailynews.com