Levees Could Pave Way to Another L.A.

The proposed levee along the outlet of the Santa Clara River means more than just impact on steelhead trout (“Scales of Justice,” Jan. 12). It--along with the levees proposed for the Newhall Ranch city upstream, the increases in rain runoff that are entering the river from new shopping centers and housing tracts within the watershed, and even a low-flow swale within the center of the river being requested for permit right now by the Army Corps of Engineers--adds up to history repeating itself.

“We don’t want to be like L.A.” is a mindless cliche to whine, unless the speaker is constructive enough to offer solutions. For example, the most environmentally friendly way to “save human property and lives” is to prevent building within the flood plain in the first place.

Another technique is to require on-site runoff detention for all parcels, be it a single family home or commercial property. On-site detention reduces the peak flow in a river, thereby preserving river capacity. It also can cleanse run-off by at least allowing solids to settle out before flowing off the property--or even better--by percolation into the soil if the detention area is designed into a planter or otherwise impervious basin.

We have these and a multitude of other opportunities in Ventura County, if the planning and permitting agencies exercise foresight now and in the coming decades. L.A. County has missed its opportunity, to the tune of great degradation of the groundwater, estuary, and marine water resources.

Part of the Santa Clara River corridor, at least for the immediate future, has been spared channelization. But every little bit of pavement and levee counts and accumulates, just like it did on the L.A. River.

NINA DANZA, Ventura