A decaying flood channel winds through the middle of a Simi Valley neighborhood, its sagging concrete sides propped up by dozens of metal and wooden bars.

Sitting above Piru, the Warring Debris Basin is too small and too old, exposing a school and a neighborhood to disaster the next time a powerful storm sends a wall of mud and rocks down the slope toward town.

Near the gated Los Posas Estates community in Camarillo, where homes sell for $1.3 million to $1.75 million, the drainage channel keeping the neighborhood safe needs replacement, at a cost estimated at more than $2 million.

Similar cases may be found in nearly every community in Ventura County. The network of levees, dams and debris basins that for more than a half-century has protected local communities from damage is old, deteriorating and in increasing danger of failing, according to engineers and flood experts. Yet money to maintain the increasingly rickety system is falling far short of what's needed, even as the population has grown and the value of property at risk has risen.

Already stressed, this hodgepodge of structures — some built by flood control engineers, some by farmers, some by anyone's guess — took a knockout beating from the muscular storms in January and February. The storms caused $256 million in damage, displaced hundreds of county residents, disrupted traffic for weeks on key highways, and left a mess that will take years to clean up.

They also served as a wake-up call to local leaders who say the time has come to re-examine how flood protection in Ventura County is planned and financed. Unless the county revamps the way it uses property taxes and fees to pay for flood protection, even smaller storms will wreak havoc, said Jeff Pratt, director of the county Watershed Protection District.

"This stuff is falling apart, we know how much it's going to cost to repair it. We have a looming problem," Pratt said.

He estimated it will take hundreds of millions of dollars over the next 25 years to repair existing projects and create new ones that meet today's engineering and environmental standards.

Pratt blames taxpayer-approved propositions that limited the district's ability to raise money to pay for the work that needs to be done every year.

"The erosion of the (district's) purchasing power brought on by Proposition 13 in 1978 and Proposition 218 in 1996 has forced the low level of service," Pratt said. "Couple this with the increased costs of regulatory compliance and the increased service demands due to the occasional floods, and we come to the conclusion we're not meeting the community's needs."

Pratt will lay out the problem for county supervisors May 24 at a study session. Supervisors called for the session in January, when they were signing million-dollar emergency contracts to dredge tons of mud out of debris basins and narrow channels and fielding constant complaints from constituents.

Although flood disasters have struck on average every eight years in Ventura County, the meeting marks the first time in 40 years the board will take a comprehensive look at flood protection.

Structures at end of life span

Since 1960, when many local levees and flood channels were built, the county's population has quadrupled from 200,000 to roughly 800,000 people. More people means more buildings and roads, turning a city such as Simi Valley into a paved speedway for floodwaters headed downstream to Camarillo.

At least half of the county's dams, debris basins, and 209 miles of levees and flood channels are nearing the end of their life span. The average age is 40 years, while the expected life span is 50.

A preliminary draft of the report Pratt will present May 24 shows more than $611 million worth of flood control projects are needed over the next 20 years. But the current funding system provides money for only about half.

Throughout most of its history, the Ventura County Flood Control District — now known as the Watershed Protection District — was flush in property tax dollars and could pretty much build and repair whatever was needed, whenever it was needed.

In 1978, however, Proposition 13 curtailed property taxes. To cope with increasing costs, the district began relying on a special parcel tax, which it raised periodically to pay for maintenance and emergency flood repairs.

Under this system, the county is divided into four watershed zones: Ventura River, Santa Clara River, Calleguas Creek and Malibu-Cuyama River. Money collected from property owners in a given zone must be spent only in that zone.

In 1996, Proposition 218 barred elected officials from raising the parcel tax to pay for new projects. The initiative froze each watershed's funding at that year's level and required that any increases be submitted to a public vote. A two-thirds majority is required for approval.

Proposition 218 had the effect of freezing into place a funding mismatch between the zones. The Santa Clara River watershed was frozen at a fairly high level — on average $37 per parcel. The Calleguas Creek and Ventura River watersheds were stuck with lower rates — $33 and $31 respectively.

The district has not asked for an increase since Proposition 218, but that may soon change. Citing a laundry list of projects needed to protect the county's growing communities, county leaders say they are considering a ballot measure that would increase the flood protection parcel tax countywide.

Besides money for projects, the Watershed Protection District also hopes to raise money to clean up polluted stormwater, anticipating tougher regulations from the state and federal governments. The district also would like to raise enough money to adopt more environmentally sensitive and aesthetically pleasing protection strategies, such as setting aside floodplain property for wildlife habitat, and for long-range planning.

"Hopefully we'll be able to present something to the voters they will see all the benefits to," said County Executive Officer Johnny Johnston.

"Now is the time people are thinking about this. Nature did the problem; now we just have to decide if we have the political will to address this," he said. "The next time, with the resources we currently have for this, the same disasters will happen. There's only so much time before we have to act."

Unfunded projects

The most pressing demands are in the two most densely populated watersheds: the Calleguas Creek and the Santa Clara River. These large, sprawling waterways are surrounded by such cities as Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Camarillo, Santa Paula and Oxnard.

All told, officials have identified 83 projects in the Calleguas Creek watershed that will cost $245 million by 2009, according to data from the Watershed Protection District. But under the current funding mechanism, there will be only $100 million available for 23 of the highest-priority projects — those that protect the most lives and property.

Roughly half of the 60 projects for which there is no money involve replacing crumbling concrete channels that carry floodwaters away from Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Moorpark and Camarillo, where nearly half the county's population lives.

That work alone would cost $99.3 million, according to the district's data.

In the 263 square miles of the Santa Clara River watershed, which includes Santa Paula, Fillmore and Oxnard, there is $130.3 million in unfunded construction projects under the category called "unsolved Santa Clara River flooding."

In the Ventura River watershed, where storms caused $8 million in damage to channels and debris basins alone, $13.5 million of unfunded projects remain.

A new way of flood control

The state's fiscal problems have exacerbated the Watershed Protection District's budget woes. About $2 million of property taxes slated for new flood protection projects in Ventura County will be shifted to the state over the next two years.

It's not just a matter of more dollars for more concrete, flood officials argue. There's a new way of protecting communities from flooding that allows rivers to do their thing: meander, top over banks, scour deeper channels and heft huge amounts of silt in land set aside for just that purpose.

"It's partnering with nature, rather than trying to cage it — an engineering goal that is doomed to fail," said Jeffrey Mount, a UC Davis professor and expert on California rivers.

The new way of flood control costs more money, however. Riverside land must be bought to allow for controlled flooding and storage. And keeping the land in a natural state is a high priority among many voters, especially those in Ventura County.

County leaders say the time has come for taxpayers to recognize that flood control, like fire and police protection, is a critical public safety function that needs to be funded properly.

"Either our level of service has to drop or we have to increase our funding," Pratt said. "The Board (of Supervisors) has to make that decision."

For county Supervisor Steve Bennett, the condition of the county's flood protection system is already a crisis. His district — which includes Ojai and Ventura — was hammered during the storms. Many residents begged the county for stream clean-outs and new projects before the winter rains, but the money just wasn't there.

"These storms were huge ... but there's no question the damage would have been less if there was adequate money for flood protection in this county," Bennett said. "We have to expand our definition of public safety."

In the lower Ojai Valley, messy evidence of the inadequacy of the county's failing flood protection system still splatters the roads, homes and even the trees — as if a giant blender full of mud had run amok. A deteriorating 5-foot-by-10-foot concrete flood channel was all that stood between a wave of fast-moving muck and residents.

The wall of debris won, causing millions of dollars in damage and tying up commuter traffic for weeks.

Flood protection officials say a debris basin upstream built to siphon off the bulk of the river's destructive load would have gone a long way to reduce the damage. But there's no money, and the area remains as vulnerable to another storm as it ever was.

"Flood protection is a critical part of our infrastructure," Johnston said. "But it's often the most ignored. We've got to take a good hard look at how we're paying for it — and not paying for it. People only think about it when it rains."

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