Ojai Valley News
March 27, 2025
After reaching recent milestones, the project to remove Matilija Dam “is progressing well,” according to county officials.
“We talk about the three big rocks in the jar. What’s our focus today?” asked Jeff Palmer, assistant director with the Ventura County Public Works Agency.
This calendar year, Palmer said, the Matilija Dam Ecosystem Restoration Project is continuing design work on downstream levees below the dam, working on risk mitigation from sediment moving downstream, and a revised concept for the Robles Fish Passage Facility.
Upgrades to levees in Meiners Oaks, Live Oak Acres and Casitas Springs will protect adjacent communities from increased flood risk, according to Palmer. “They’ve offered great protection, but without the dam there’s some additional concern. We want to make sure those levees provide the full protection needed after the dam is down,” he said.
A milestone was reached in November when a sediment report underway since 2006 was completed. “It’s really the cornerstone for documenting what happens as we take the dam down,” Palmer said. The study, the second “rock in the jar,” analyzes what’s going to happen with the 9 million cubic yards of sediment trapped behind the dam, so “we completely understand what those potential impacts could be, and we appropriately plan for them.”
Part of the sediment study is a new bridge at Camino Cielo that will increase vehicle and pedestrian safety and improve fish and sediment passage.
Another recent milestone are site tours, the latest last week, with staff from the California Coastal Commission, looking at state and federal environmental rules to make sure they’re consistent in terms of overall scope and implementation.
Palmer said the agency “will end up being a significant partner with us in the process. They had a lot of questions but were very positive about working with us.”
The third “rock” is design work at Robles, owned by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and operated by Casitas Municipal Water District. Design modifications will improve sediment transport, water-supply reliability and endangered-fish passage.
“Three huge pieces of work we’re doing this year and it’s real exciting to be here,” Palmer said. “We’re seeing great progress.”
Palmer said the project will need to consider impacts on water wells operated by water agencies up and down the river, and conduct tribal consultation “to make sure that their lands and their regards are taken care of.”
“The Ventura River is a wonderful thing to look at right now,” Palmer said, with the county and its partners working on the dam at the top end of the watershed and the city of Ventura working
on estuary reconstruction at Surfer’s Point. “You have these two bookends for this wild and natural river.”
Palmer cited projects on the Klamath River in Northern California as successful, inspiring examples of dam removal. “Nature really takes care of and heals itself,” he said.
Built in 1947, Matilija Dam was approved for removal by the Ventura County Board of Supervisors in 1998.
To date, MDERP has spent approximately $70 million on dam removal studies dating back about 20 years. “Science and our biologists have learned a lot about how to do these in a safe way that allows nature to recover,” Palmer said.
The project currently has about $30 million in grants that are funding ongoing work for the next few years, said Palmer, former general manager of Ojai Valley Sanitary District. He now oversees not only watershed protection for the county, but roads and transportation, and water and sanitation.
Palmer told the Ojai Valley News that demolition of the dam, completion of downstream projects and restoration of the area will likely require another $250 million in funding.
The current plan for removal of the dam involves boring two 12-foot-diameter tunnels into, but not all the way through, the base of the dam. Engineers will then use dynamite to blow the tunnels open during a time of high water flow.
Taking down the dam is at least five years away, according to Palmer. “We wait for the right rainstorm to be big enough to push the sediment downstream,” he said. “We’ve had two wonderful winters (2023-24), so if you can dial up another good, wet winter in 2030-31, we’ll probably be in the right place.”
