About the Project

Matilija Dam, located inland of Santa Barbara and Ventura, California, was built in 1947, to for water supply and flood control. The dam is a safety hazard and defunct, with sediment nearly filling its reservoir. Matilija Dam blocks a tributary of the Ventura River about 16 miles from the Pacific Ocean, cutting off steelhead migration and preventing passage to more than 50 percent of the primary spawning and rearing habitat of the river system. The dam also prevents downstream transport of nearly eight million cubic yards of sediment necessary to maintain the estuary and beaches at Surfer’s Point.

Over the past several years, with federal, state, and local funding, dam owner Ventura County Watershed Protection District and stakeholders undertook studies that identified various structural dam removal alternatives for dealing with the sediment behind the dam. In spring 2016, a multi-stakeholder Matilija Dam “Design Oversight Group” selected a preferred alternative dam removal concept. The District is now undertaking improvements to downstream levees, bridges, and roads that are preconditional to dam removal while concurrently advancing the design and permitting phases for the dam removal.