Government Panel Recommends Removing Matijila Dam (Near LA)

[hatrack]

"Matilija Dam should be torn down all at once in order to revive the dwindling population of endangered southern steelhead trout, a coalition of federal, state and local officials has decided. After three years of study, a task force has come up with a plan to remove the obsolete 20-story structure north of Ojai and remove the 6 million cubic yards of silt behind it, said Ventura County Supervisor Steve Bennett.

A local water district has raised concerns that the project minimize the effects on water quality and water supply. But so far, no major opposition has materialized. "That is significant," said Bennett, a member of the task force. "Usually these projects have opponents."

Advocates say the dam's removal, which is expected to cost tens of millions of dollars, would replenish Ventura's sand-starved beaches and restore a historical breeding ground for steelhead in the upper reaches of the Ventura River.

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At 190 feet tall and 600 feet wide, Matilija is the largest dam in the country to be targeted for removal."

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[hunter]

1. Good Riddance!

But what a job it will be... 6 million cubic yards of silt is not trivial. You can't just tear down the dam and let all the silt go free without causing very severe problems downstream, especially if you are trying to protect steelhead trout and other riparian wildlife.

The dam was built in 1948, but it was later determined to be unsafe, and a notch was cut in the top portion to lower the water level.

Southern California streams and rivers are notorious for carrying huge amounts of sediment. You can understand why if you picture mountains that rise a few feet with every giant earthquake, and frequent brush fires that are followed by heavy rains. Dams like this silt up very quickly.

This particular dam was a boondoggle from the start.

[hatrack]

2. Have you read "The Control Of Nature" by John McPhee?

The third and final section is called "Los Angeles Against The Mountains" and is all about the debris-flow dams built in the 1940s and 1950s.

Even when McPhee was writing TCON in the 1970s, these dams were filling up the gunwales, despite the best efforts of the Department of Water & Power to dredge them out, at least partially, from time to time.

And, of course, dams like Matijila and the LA debris-flow structures are tiny - really, REALLY small - when compared with structures like Elephant Butte, Hoover, Curecanti and Glen Canyon.

[hunter]

5. No, haven't read McPhee...

But I have been to most of those places.

Glen Canyon is an interesting study. During the floods of 1983 it was only dumb-ass luck that the spillway tunnels didn't fail entirely. I always wanted to meet the guy who first saw the giant chunks of concrete and orange sandstone flying out of that monster hole. He probably needed to change his pants.

And I drove out to gawk at the goofy plywood dams they built on the spillways of the various Colorado River dams to raise the lake levels a few feet to buy themselves some more time.

I think I got interested in this sort of thing after the Teton Dam failure washed away my great grandfather's mortal remains... It's okay he always liked to fish.

[NNadir]

6. I'm not familiar with this failure that unearthed your grandfather.

What can you tell us about it?

[hunter]

7. Here's a nice link with pictures:

http://www.geol.ucsb.edu/faculty/sylvester/Teton%20Dam/welcome_dam.html

[NNadir]

8. Thanx. n/t

[NNadir]

3. Removing the Hetch Hetchy.

There was one, exactly one, idea of James Watt's (Reagan's awful Secretary of the Interior) of which I approved. (I actually think he broached the idea out of a kind of perverse cynicism.) It was demolishing the Hetch Hetchy in Yosemite National Park. That dam was John Muir's greatest defeat.

[hatrack]

4. A second Yosemite Valley would be nice! n/t

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