UNITED WATER HAS PLACED A $350 MILLION BOND ISSUE ON THE NOVEMBER BALLOT - INCLUDING IMPROVEMENTS TO THE INEFFECTIVE FISH LADDER AT THEIR FREEMAN DIVERSION DAM ON THE SANTA CLARA RIVER NEAR SATICOY
This November, a UWCD-sponsored bond measure will go to the voters in those areas of Ventura County that receive waters from UWCD - from Piru, Fillmore and Santa Paula to the coast, including east Ventura, and Oxnard, Port Hueneme, southwest Camarillo, and the county’s two military bases.
This district is home to a population of about 400,000.
The bond issue will require a two-thirds vote to be implemented.
There are three main capital improvement projects that the $350 million bond intends to fund with public monies:
- seismic retrofits and spillway improvements at Santa Felicia dam on lower Piru Creek,
- improvements to the Vern Freeman diversion dam’s fish passage facilities on the Santa Clara River near Saticoy, and
_ a treatment plant for turning brackish water into drinking and agricultural water, on the coast.
UWCD’s promotional brochure for the bond measure claims that the U.S. Federal District Court’s 2018 ruling in the Wishtoyo v. UWCD case, “requires the District to construct an improved fish passage facility” at the Vern Freeman diversion dam. (p. 8) UWCD’s bond-funded proposal is to improve the current but ineffective denil fish ladder at the Freeman Diversion Dam. (See photo above.)
UWCD’s bond measure identifies fish passage at the Vern Freeman Diversion as its second most important capital improvement, totaling $104 million. However, the proposed modification of the denil fish ladder cannot be completed without permits from both the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). The existing denil fish ladder design (dating from the mid-1990s) that UWCD proposes to rehabilitate with the bond funding, has been found to be inadequate for steelhead passage by both NMFS and CDFW, even if modified.
Judge David O. Carter of the U.S. Federal District Court in Los Angeles, has ruled that the preferred fish passage structure at the Freeman Diversion dam is the rock ramp, to be built in the middle of the diversion dam, which will construct a series of rock pools to allow upstream migrating steelhead to jump up one pool at a time to pass over the top of the dam. The rock ramp option has the support of both NMFS and the CDFW - both of the agencies that must approve any new fish passage proposal at the Freeman Diversion dam.
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NMFS letter to UWCD denies the application for modification of the denil fish passage facilities.
The following excerpts from Judge David O. Carter’s court ruling on Sept 10, 2025, requires UWCD
to construct the hardened rock ramp fish passage structure at their Freeman Diversion dam.
This excerpt reaffirms NMFS’ opposition to UWCD’s proposed modification of their denil fish ladder at the Freeman Diversion dam.
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This letter rejects UWCD’s application for the modified denil fish passage facilities at the Vern Freeman Diversion Dam as incomplete.