Following Deaths of Las Lomas Students, County Wants to Educate the Public About Canal Dangers

At its Tuesday meeting, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors asked staff members to come up with ways to remind the public that flood-control canals flowing through Walnut Creek and other communities are dangerous.

These waterways may not look it, especially in late spring and summer when the water coursing through them slows to narrow rivulets. But they are, especially after a heavy storm. 

Supervisors were responding to the deaths of two Las Lomas High School students, Matt Miller, 16, and Gavin Powell, 17, who set off on a rafting trip on Feb. 19, a rainy Saturday afternoon outing that turned deadly. Although authorities probably never will know how or when the two Las Lomas juniors fell into the water, they likely moved  from a natural creek that runs south of Murwood Elementary School and passed through a tunnel that drops into San Ramon Creek.

. One route flows west as a more or less natural creek, passing through the Creekside Drive neighborhood and in front of Las Lomas High. It is not fenced in certain areas and  is accessible. 

A flood-control bypass that is fenced was built to carry water away from the creek, especially when water levels are high after a storm. The San Ramon Creek bypass carries swift-moving storm water under South Broadway, crosses under Newell Avenue and then flows behind Safeway and Civic Park. 

"(The flood-control system) is designed to move the water very fast and with a tremendous amount of force," Mitch Avalon, the deputy public works director for the Contra Costa Flood Control District,  "It'll pull you right down and there's debris, too, so a log from a tree could also hurt you."

 The canals also contain numerous gates and drop structures with rushing water at the top and bottom that is turbulent and creates a strong undertow.

The county launched a "Stay Out, Stay Alive" campaign in 1991 after a 14-year-old boy fell into the canal and drowned, the Contra Costa Times reported.  But Avalon said that the campaign was not intended as a long-term program. 

Options to educate the public could include the county posting numerous and more aggressive signs and installing additional fencing, the Times reported. But Avalon said it's not feasible to fence all 73 miles of waterways that run through the county. Some creeks run through private property and the county must maintain openings for natural streams that flow into the system, Avalon said, according to the Times.