Happy Camp flood channel upgrades okayed
By Sylvie Belmond belmond@theacorn.com

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a temporary flood channel fix to protect 26 homes on Cambridge Street in case of heavy rains.

The Happy Camp Flood Channel is bordered by homes and a golf club just west of Moorpark College.

The project includes the construction of a new earthen channel with rock stabilizers along the western portion of Happy Camp Canyon, disposal of excavated material in the eastern portion of the Canyon with associated grading, and improvements including a connection to the adjoining concrete-lined channel inlet located at the southwest part of the Rustic Canyon Golf Course.

This is just a Band-Aid project, said Jeff Pratt, director of Ventura County’s Watershed Protection District.

The project will mostly be funded by the Natural Resource Conservation Service, which is a federal agency. If the board had not approved the project, funds would have been lost, he said.

“The . . . Cambridge homes should never have been put there,” said County Supervisor Linda Parks. The houses are right at the bottom of a large confluent of water at the mouth of a dry river, she said.

“The temporary improvements proposed by the Ventura County Watershed Protection District for the Happy Camp Canyon Flood Channel won’t work,” said Moorpark Councilmember Roseann Mikos, who lives on Cambridge Street. She spoke in opposition to the proposal during the board meeting last Tuesday.

“They are setting up the possibility of catastrophic failure instead of helping the situation,” said Mikos.

What the county is trying to do with the $700,000 grant won’t address the problem, she said. “In my opinion, it could be more dangerous with heavy rains.” The county Waterworks Depart

ment is trying to change the course of the main channel, but that will exacerbate the flow of debris, Mikos said. The changes could clog the channel and cause more flooding, she said. An avid hiker, the council member said she’s familiar with the water patterns in the area.

“The golf course exacerbated the possible flooding problem because it took away a natural channel,” said Mikos, adding she has nothing against golf, but the drainage could have been planned better.