Casitas votes for fish ladder
By Jesse Phelps

For the moment, it seems the political currents are flowing in favor of the endangered southern steelhead trout.

The board of directors of the Casitas Municipal Water District voted 4-to-1 on Wednesday afternoon to accept the mandate of the National Marine Fisheries Service and begin construction of the fish passage at the Robles Diversion.

After months of meetings, both public and private, and over threats of water shortages and rising prices, the board reluctantly conceded it had run out of alternatives. "I don't believe the board has any options," said general manager John Johnson.

"You've talked to your attorneys. This is a mandated action."
Once again, their meeting was well-attended, but this time most came in support of the board and its difficulties, rather than to express displeasure. Sharon Troll works with repeat offenders in Ventura and she said she felt the lake was an invaluable resource for her charges.

Board member Jim Coultas thanked those who expressed their sympathies with the board's position. "I'd just really like to thank the members of the audience," said Coultas.

"Many of the questions raised here are ones we've wrestled with for the last four years. You people are starting to feel some of the frustrations that we've felt trying to deal with these alphabet agencies."

Board members continued to express their displeasure with the mandate, maintaining that they felt coerced by outside agencies. Coultas said he'd looked up the word "coerce" in the dictionary, which gave him the synonym "compel." Said Coultas, "I personally feel compelled to approve this."

That feeling, at least, was unanimous. Most of the board members said they felt compelled to act against their own best interest and several raised the issue of loss of local control to federal authority. Board president Chuck Bennett posed the conundrum thus: "We are giving up control of our lake," he said. "There's going to be legal action. There's no escaping it. We are in a box here and we're going to have to try to fight our way out of it."

If Casitas raises rates, members of the community have threatened legal action against the agency. Meanwhile, Johnson said if Casitas refused to acknowledge the biological opinion and continued to delay, he and the members of the board could be subject to legal action from the government, with a strong potential for jail time.

Board member Bill Hicks said he would be willing to pay that price, even with first hand knowledge of the discomfort. "I feel strongly about it enough to go," he said. "I've only been in jail once and it wasn't fun, let me tell you."

Hicks was vehement with his nay vote at the end of all the discussion when votes were called for, saying, "No. Hell No." The rest of the board reluctantly agreed it was time to move forward.
Coultas said he understood the importance of restoring the fish. "It's a very important situation," he said.

I'd personally love to see the steelhead recovered. I think the fish ladder's a great idea, I think it can work. The only problem I have is the volume of water that's necessary to the bypass and the scientific evidence that says that's how much it is. Let's proceed with it. It'll definitely be the responsibility of this board to take as many conservation measures as possible."

The decision was hailed as an enormous victory for the fish by environmental activists. Attorney John Buse of the Environmental Defense Center said, "That's the important thing.

We really have to focus on this as a really the first and maybe the broadest measure I've seen in Southern California particularly to protect steelhead. It's outstanding."
He also found fault with Casitas' notion that local control was being over-ridden by the all-powerful federal influence.

"The idea that this is an affront to local control, for a federal reclamation project that only exists as a result of the federal government, is outrageous," he said. "I really can't understand that at all."

Paul Jenkin, director of the Matilija Coalition, agreed that the fish had won a major battle. "From my perspective," he said, "This is great because it's really the first step in the restoration of the river and our natural resources here. And the ultimate removal of the Matilija Dam couldn't happen without this."

Buse was impressed with the board's, and Johnson's, agonized deliberations. "Time will tell as far as the doomsday predictions," Buse said. "I think that certainly they managed to do the Chicken-Little scenario. They out-Chicken-Littled any environmentalist that I've ever heard, as far as the doom and gloom."

© 2003 The Ojai Valley News

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