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Santa Clarita River and Iron Horse Bridge

‘Santa Clarita River Lake’ Project Not Backed By City, Water Officials, Despite Mayoral Endorsement

After the release of a video in which Santa Clarita Mayor Bill Miranda invites members of the community to share their input on a potential artificial rainwater reservoir project in the Santa Clara Riverbed, other officials have noted that the project is not backed by the city nor the local water agency.

City officials announced that despite the Mayor’s presentation of the invitation video, the Santa Clarita River Lake is not a City project.

“While this is a very interesting concept, there are a number of incredibly significant environmental and private property rights issues this project would need to overcome before the city should consider being involved with its inception,” said Councilmember Jason Gibbs.

John Pramik, the progenitor of the Santa Clarita River Lake concept, is a professional musician with several accolades under his belt, including performing a ragtime number on the piano as Brad Pitt’s hands in the 2008 film “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”

“I have met with Mr. Pramik twice over the last several years to discuss his project,” said Cameron Smyth, City Councilmember and former Mayor. “I am always happy to meet with people, particularly anyone who has an idea that they think will be a benefit to the city.”

In a SCV 101 interview with Mayor Miranda, Pramik revealed his inspiration for the project came after the torrential downpour of rain in 2017 after a record-setting California drought beginning in 2011.

“During the rainstorm, I looked down at the river, and saw millions and millions of gallons washing underneath Bouquet Canyon (Road),” Pramik said in the interview, released Oct. 13. “I realized if I were to take my umbrella and like Mary Poppins go down into the water onto a little boat, I would go past Fillmore and go past Santa Paula, in that same water and end up in Ventura Harbor. And I realized, why would we want our water to go to Ventura Harbor when we can have it here?”

The son of an engineer, Pramik was partially inspired by similar water conservation projects, including Tempe Town Lake in Tempe, Arizona, an artificial reservoir constructed in an existing waterway.

“It’s still a long shot here in Santa Clarita, but I think it is a project worth pursuing,” Miranda said during the SCV 101 interview.

Water officials noted that if the project were to be pursued, there were a multitude of issues to overcome before the Santa Clarita River Lake could become a reality.

“We absolutely in no way endorse the project nor are we participating in this project,” said Gary Martin, President of the Santa Clarita Valley Water (SCV Water) Agency Board of Directors.

SCV Water Director William Cooper also noted that he was familiar with Pramik, and had been impressed by his dedication.

“John is an extremely nice guy and is very passionate about this project, but looking at this from the point of view of water there are some real serious issues,” Cooper said.

According to Cooper, the proposed site for the Santa Clarita River Lake is one of the main recharge areas for the underground aquifers that provide water to the Santa Clarita Valley.

Recharge occurs when water seeps into the ground to replenish underground aquifers, and the liner proposed for the project to prevent seepage and the actual building of the water feature would inherently affect the aquifers.

In addition to water availability, the project would likely also have an impact on local wildlife, including the endangered unarmored three-spined stickleback, a fish barely more than an inch long that calls the Santa Clara River and its tributaries home in Los Angeles County.

The impact of the recent statewide emergency drought declaration by California Governor Gavin Newsom is as of yet unknown on the possibility of this potential project proposal.

Mr. Pramik and Mayor Miranda did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Santa Clarita River Lake project proposal is set to take place at The Main Theater (24266 Main Street) in Newhall, at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 3.

Organizers expect that the event will include a presentation and discussion of launching a large-scale City Water Harvesting Lake Project, including a 1/1600 scale model of a possible water-harvesting lake in Santa Clarita.

More information should be available on the project website.


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‘Santa Clarita River Lake’ Project Not Backed By City, Water Officials, Despite Mayoral Endorsement

15 comments

  1. On the few days per year that there are “millions of gallons flowing in Bouquet Creek” why not just divert it to existing reservoirs like Castaic and Piru? Be a heckuva lot easier to pipe the water over, and would have much less of an impact. Thanks to Newsom dumping our water into the ocean up north, our existing reservoirs always have plenty of capacity.

    Realize that because of all the dog and homeless drug addict feces, the water flowing down the creek is absolutely filthy and requires tremendous remediation before it can be sent to customers.

    • TAP, C’Mon Man, a few hundred of Delta Smelt & Salmon are more important than millions of humans and agriculture———-the same mentality of Liberal tree huggers not allowing forest management leading to massive fires! Too many Karen’s & Brandon’s !

  2. Why not fill the empty Chatsworth Reservoir ? It’s been empty for 50 years!

  3. It is time to think out of the box and have the US Army Corps of Engineers come in and strengthen and wake up the existing Dry Canyon Reservoir which is located at the top of Seco Canyon Road. It is owned and still operated by the LA City DWP and is located on the present path of the Aquaduct Southern Section. Upon completion it held 500 million gallons of water between 1912 and 1952. It was closed out of fear of the dam breaking in a quake. Now it could be strengthened and used in scaled way at least during the rainy season so water doesn’t go out to sea. What a wasted resource. The time is now. This reservoir already exists and can be modernized and we will all benefit.

    https://www.elsmerecanyon.com/drycanyon/drycanyon.htm

    http://www.elsmerecanyon.com/drycanyon/historic/historic.htm

  4. When a river or stream is carrying tons of sediments a lake in its path becomes a sediment trap. How deep is the proposed lake and how long will it take to fill up with sediments from the river?
    Just a little geography: The Santa Clara River flows directly into the Pacific Ocean and not into Ventura Harbor.

  5. To many levels of overlapping bureaucracy to ever get any practical idea like this done.

  6. It is time to think out of the box and have the US Army Corps of Engineers come in and strengthen and wake up the existing Dry Canyon Reservoir which is located at the top of Seco Canyon Road. It is owned and still operated by the LA City DWP and is located on the present path of the Aquaduct Southern Section. Upon completion it held 500 million gallons of water between 1912 and 1952. It was closed out of fear of the dam breaking in a quake. Now it could be strengthened and used in scaled way at least during the rainy season so water doesn’t go out to sea. What a wasted resource. The time is now. This reservoir already exists and can be modernized and we will all benefit.
    https://www.elsmerecanyon.com/drycanyon/drycanyo

  7. This idea is commendable only because someone is concerned. It will NOT work for a myriad of reasons. Sedimentation, endangered species, disruption of natural ground water recharge that is already taking place, and most importantly, IF the project could pas ANY engineering criteria, the County of Los Angeles, and the State DWR will NEVER allow it to be done. Given that I owned over 2 miles of the river for 5 to 6 decades, I think I speak from some level of knowledge.

  8. This is how I see it ……
    The “progenitor” Mr. Pramik has more common sense than the officials Cooper, Gibbs and Martin.
    California is run by the residents of the insane asylum, California NEVER should have filled in and paved over the water catch basins. It doesn’t matter that he is a musician and not involved in local water management … heck the country elected a president that’s been in politics fir 47 plus years and he’s worthless and caused major problems and price hikes…a price hike that is bound to raise our water prices.

  9. KMS, Yes, Definitely! Just like our prices have gone UP to pay for the errors/bungles of the gas Co.(Porter Ranch) & the power companies (multiple fires/maintenance neglect)!! The Board of Directors/Investors are too concerned with Profits than long term safety which includes stable profits! Damn Demonic Greed!

  10. Thank you all, we launch to the public http://www.SantaClaritaRiverLake.com on November 4 th, this is a ground based citizen launch of my vision of large scale rain capture that will show a complete video of why & how and I will show the model of Santa Clarita I built in my garage of the project.

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About Jade Aubuchon

A Santa Clarita native, Jade has spent her whole life involved in community outreach. After graduating from Learning Post High in 2015, she went on to College of the Canyons to pursue a double major in English and Marketing. Jade spent several years as a ballroom dance performer for a local studio and has performed at public and private events throughout Santa Clarita. As KHTS Co-News Director Jade oversees the KHTS news team, which covers all the latest news impacting Santa Clarita. Along with covering and writing her own news stories, Jade can be heard broadcasting the daily local news every weekday morning and afternoon drive-time twice an hour on KHTS 98.1FM and AM-1220. Jade is also instrumental in reporting on-the-scene local emergencies, covering them on-air and via Facebook Live and YouTube. Another dimension to Jade’s on-air skills and writing are her regular political and celebrity interviews, including her bi-monthly interview with our Congressman Mike Garcia and many other local politicians and community leaders.