SIMI VEXED BY HIGH GROUNDWATER; OFFICIALS SEEKING SOLUTIONS TO SOGGY NEIGHBORHOODS.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Daily News Staff Writer

The summer sun is shining now over Sutter Avenue in Simi Valley, offering a momentary chance for the water-soaked west end neighborhood to come up for air.

The gutter streams have lowered to a trickle, front yard grass in some spots is beginning to dry and algae isn't growing as rampant as in winter, when the city increased its sidewalk scrubbing schedule to twice a week to prevent the green goo from building up.

But the groundwater beneath their homes lies waiting, ready for the next rains that will send water and tempers gurgling to the surface, drowning the neighborhood in frustration it has felt for years.

``On the other side of the street there's muck and water all the time,'' said resident Kathy Schoen, who watches the gutters flow with water in front of local homes. ``It's real sad.''

City crews have been surveying the area since last month and by August they hope to present a new solution to the historic problem. Engineers want to craft an underground diversion system that would be an alternative to the city's vast pumping operations installed a decade ago to keep other neighborhoods on terra firma.

The plans are getting mixed reviews, as environmentalists worry about simply flushing more water down the Arroyo Simi, and residents recount previous plans that have come and gone.

But city officials, who get telephone calls from angry homeowners and approve the bills to have streets scrubbed and paved year after year, are optimistic that this latest round of surveys may bring an end to the muck.

``Those people shouldn't have to be living in a swamp,'' said City Councilwoman Sandi Webb, who serves on a local committee dealing with water issues. ``I will do what it takes to figure out what we have to do to find the solution.''

Simi Valley always has had a high groundwater table that collects beneath the surface in colonies of aquifers particularly prevalent on the west end of town.

Generations ago, farmers valued the underground waterways and tapped into the system to irrigate crops and orchards that covered the landscape long before the housing tracts started going up.

The county has recorded hundreds of underground agricultural wells beneath the surface in Simi Valley, and engineers continue to hit new ones when surveying the area for new building projects in the city.

Importing drinking water 

But as agriculture waned and development began its boom in the 1960s, housing tracts and mini-malls replaced farmland, and residents increasingly relied on imported water from Northern California, which is now what most of the local residents drink.

``With less and less groundwater being used to irrigate orchards and crops, the groundwater would build up over the years,'' said Ron Coons, city public works director. ``It's causing more and more nuisance.''

Drought conditions help clear up the soggy surfaces for a spell, but as soon as heavy rains hit, the neighborhoods are again swimming in groundwater.

In the Greek track, water was spilling out from beneath one home after a high rainy season - the house had been built atop an old agricultural well, Coons said.

``It looks like somebody's just constantly washing their car,'' said Schoen, who has lived in the Sutter area for the past five years.

About 15 years ago, the city undertook a vast dewatering operation, installing $250,000 pumps in five neighborhoods that would suck the salty water out and flush it down the Arroyo Simi.

Pumps sit eight to 10 feet below the surface in little-noticed locations around town, including what city workers call the Bowling Alley pump near a Sinaloa Road bowling alley and another behind a popular Acapulco restaurant near First Street, said city engineer Dan Bleskey.

Together, the five devices pump about 2,000 gallons per minute from beneath the earth's surface and send it untreated into the Arroyo Simi, where it typically dries up before reaching Mugu Lagoon, officials said.

Downstream impact

The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, which monitors local waterways, allows the city to discharge the untreated water into the arroyo but is increasingly concerned about the impact such discharges from around the county are having on the watershed.

Though the Simi Valley groundwater has not been found to have any man-made contaminants - such as pollutants from gasoline or other chemicals - its high salt content can wear on the Arroyo Simi, officials said.

Environmentalists have long worried about the cumulative impact of flushing waters down the arroyo and into Mugu Lagoon, and farmers have worried about the impact on irrigation sources for their crops, said Don Kendall, general manager of the Calleguas Metropolitan Water District.

The Los Angeles Regional Water Board this month is beginning a comprehensive study of the Calleguas Creek to determine the local agencies' contributions to the overall health of the creek.

``Those kinds of impacts, if there are impacts, would be picked up,'' said Catherine Terrell, coastal watersheds program director for the regional water board. ``We're actually able to look at the overall watershed and see if the standards we are applying are adequate.''

Kendall is among those who would rather see the city treat the groundwater and use it for drinking water, a proposal city officials said they will consider if an affordable plan is put forth.

Until then, they see no alternative but to get the groundwater out from underneath residents.

Two weeks ago, workers were drilling for water in the Sutter area, searching for an elusive underground aquifer, when they hit pay dirt - sending a 20-foot geyser straight into the sky.

It was the Holy Grail for groundwater engineers, a high-pressure zone they had a hunch existed underground, and one they believe could provide the basis for a new underground diversion system.

The plan for the Sutter Avenue area, which would probably cost about the same as a $250,000 well, would rely on the area's natural high pressure to push groundwater through underground pipes into the arroyo.

``If it works, it'll be great,'' said Bleskey, the principal engineer on the project, who said the system would not require the energy costs of the pumping stations.

Just that single blow of the geyser released enough pressure to allow some surface water to drop back into the ground, said engineers who noted that water has temporarily stopped flowing down the street.

``To me, it's amazing that both sides of the street are dry,'' Schoen said.

Engineers plan to continue surveying the area in the coming weeks and hope to prepare a report on their findings and recommendations for the City Council next month.