Steelhead’s New Status May Not Make Big Waves

Despite the potential for higher costs and reduced availability of water in Ventura County, water officials and environmentalists Monday minimized the effects of designating steelhead trout in the Santa Clara and Ventura rivers as endangered.

The federal protection, extended to the fish Monday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in general means activities on the rivers considered harmful to the trout are subject to federal review.

But environmentalists and water officials both downplayed the consequences of placing the fish under the Endangered Species Act, saying the practical effect is difficult to gauge.

“I don’t think it’s going to be that significant to the man on the street,” said Jim Kentosh, operations manager of the United Water Conservation District, which manages the Santa Clara River watershed.

Even environmentalists, while welcoming the government’s move, believe the listing will have a generally subtle effect on people’s lives.

“I don’t know that it’s going to cost Mr. and Mrs. Ventura County a great deal on their water rates,” said Carla Bard, spokeswoman for the Environmental Defense Center, a public interest law firm with offices in Ventura. “What we’re dealing with here is something I think will enhance [their] quality of life.”

One item that may prove costly, however, is installing a fish ladder at Robles Dam in the Ojai Valley, which could cost the Casitas Municipal Water District between $2 million and $5 million. Whether the 60,000 west Ventura County residents who rely on the district’s water can expect to pay higher water rates in order to preserve an almost extinct fish is unclear.

“I think the federal agencies are trying to do a good job of taking other people’s needs into account,” said Jean Baldrige, a consultant working with local governments to devise a steelhead management plan for the Ventura River. “They understand there’s an urban community that depends on those water supplies.”

Locally, steelhead--considered the oceangoing version of rainbow trout, although in scientific terms it’s closer to salmon--live in an area stretching from Malibu Creek to the south to the Santa Maria River in northern Santa Barbara County. Its numbers have declined to about 500 from estimated historic highs of 55,000 fish.

Because the listing had been proposed for the past year, Monday’s announcement did not come as a surprise. Indeed, about 10 government agencies had joined together to hire Baldrige in anticipation of the move.

“We had a distinct feeling, as did everybody, that this was coming,” said Steve Wickstrum, spokesman for Casitas Municipal Water District. “We’re going to continue to operate as we are right at the moment.”

A preliminary version of the agencies’ management plan, which includes 44 potential actions to improve the fish habitat, will be the subject of a public hearing at 7 p.m. Monday at the Oak View Community Center, 18 Valley Road.

Similar steps to increase the steelhead population have already been taken on the Santa Clara River, such as construction of a $2-million fish ladder in 1991.

Environmentalists like Bard hope the endangered listing will require the proposed Newhall Ranch project, a massive housing development that would eventually bring 70,000 people just across the Ventura County border near the Santa Clara River, to undergo more stringent review.

However, environmentalists note that, in the case of the coho salmon, status as an endangered species hasn’t meant an end to what they consider destructive logging in the Pacific Northwest.

Jim Kentosh of the United Water Conservation District pointed to the aftermath of the coho’s endangered designation, saying that listing the steelhead should have a similarly minor impact in this area.

PROTECTED FISH

U.S. government classifies the region’s steelhead trout as endangered. A3