The Pole Creek Emergency Debris & Detention Basin is normally a dry, weed-filled wasteland located between Heritage Valley Parkway and El Dorado Mobile Homes, adjacent to Highway 126. But it’s proved its worth during the recent rains, diverting spillovers out of the Pole Creek channel, north of the basin. The basin has a level capacity of 440,440 cubic years at the spillway invert. The emergency spillway is a soil cement end sill with a crest elevation of 441.7 feet; the spillway length is 337.9 feet. It was completed in 2009. According to the Ventura County Public Works Agency Watershed Protection District, a Five Year Planned Capital Projects report states Pole Creek Channel Improvements will have an estimated cost of $650,000 for the fiscal years 2020/2021 to 2023/2024. Photo credit Angel Esquivel-AE News.