Dam Removal

Ventura County supervisors signed off Tuesday on an environmental review of plans to tear down Matilija Dam near Ojai, setting the stage for a project designed to rescue an endangered migratory fish and restore sand flows to depleted beaches. Despite concerns about potential decreases in area water supplies, the Board of Supervisors unanimously endorsed a report outlining the environmental challenges and benefits posed by the $130-million project.

Demolition of Matilija Dam near Ojai could reduce water supplies for some customers, while harming efforts to rescue the endangered steelhead trout, said local water agency officials who are concerned that these issues are not addressed in the project's environmental impact report.

The 190-foot-high Matilija Dam in Ventura County can be removed over three years at an estimated cost of $130 million, according to a new study that examines the environmental benefits and challenges involved in demolishing the aging structure.

Amid much fanfare, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt climbed behind the controls of a construction crane in 2000 and personally removed a 16,000-pound chunk of concrete from the face of Matilija Dam. It was the symbolic first step in razing the dam that has been blamed for the decline of the endangered southern steelhead trout and the depletion of sand at Ventura County beaches. Babbitt vowed to make the dam's removal a top priority.

For the first time since before the Civil War, the graceful Rappahannock River flowed unchecked Monday from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay after Army explosive experts blasted open a 130-foot section of the Embrey Dam. One minute, a glistening wall of water -- 22 feet high and 700 feet wide -- flowed over the dam into the gently running, greenish-brown water of the Rappahannock.

Get your rebar out of our lake. That was the message Wednesday from the Los Angeles City Council, nine months after the Army Corps of Engineers dumped chunks of concrete laced with steel rebar into a lake at Hansen Dam, a recreation spot popular with joggers and horse riders in the northeast San Fernando Valley. Last summer, residents noticed blocks of concrete under the water, discarded there by the corps after it rebuilt a nearby swimming lake.

About 300 people showed up this week to air suggestions and concerns on removal of the Matilija Dam, north of Ojai. While nearly everyone seemed to favor the dam's demise, the 20 speakers at the meeting Thursday evening in Ventura raised questions over safety, the environment and the multimillion-dollar cost of the project. The meeting was hosted by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Ventura County Flood Control District. The reservoir created by the dam holds only about 1.

The Army Corps of Engineers and Ventura County Flood Control District will hold a public meeting Jan. 31 to discuss a feasibility study for the removal of Matilija Dam. The purpose of the meeting is to raise issues or concerns in advance of an environmental impact report and to solicit input from the public and government agencies. The meeting will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Hall of Administration, Board of Supervisors Hearing Room, 800 S. Victoria Ave., Ventura.

A push to tear down Matilija Dam took a step forward Thursday with the announcement of a cost-sharing agreement between Ventura County officials and the Army Corps of Engineers. The pact covers a $4.2-million study that will help determine whether the federal government moves forward with a proposal to remove the obsolete dam just north of Ojai.