SANTA PAULA : Creek-Lining Project Might Be Revived

The U.S. Corps of Engineers may revive a $30-million flood control project on the Santa Paula Creek.

At the urging of Santa Paula and Ventura County officials, the federal agency indicated recently that it would re-evaluate the project. The County Board of Supervisors is expected Tuesday to authorize letters urging that the corps allocate money immediately for the project.

“We’ve been trying for years to get going on this,” said G.J. Nowak, deputy director of public works for the county. He said the creek flooded in 1969 and 1978, threatening the city.

The creek originates in the mountains between Ojai and Santa Paula and flows along the east side of Santa Paula into the Santa Clara River. The project involves lining the creek’s bottom and sides with concrete.

A portion of the work, a few thousand feet near the Santa Paula Freeway, was done during the 1970s, Nowak said. The project came to a halt when a group calling itself Friends of the Creek filed a lawsuit to stop construction and have the creek left in its natural form.

Then the corps suspended work on the creek because the benefits no longer justified the escalating cost of the project, Nowak said.

Local officials hope to extend the concrete channeling upstream a few miles to the Mupu area on the outskirts of Santa Paula, along California 150. That work would involve realigning the highway, he said.