Cover Story : A Flow of Funds to Keep Glen on Firm Ground

Protecting Pasadena Glen’s 38 houses from mud and debris flows is an expensive proposition. Here are some of the expenditures approved or pending with the federal government. They do not include any federal or state assistance to individual homeowners:

* $200,000 to build a second large debris barrier at the top, or northernmost end, of the Glen, and smaller barriers along the stream to contain debris during flooding. Also, to line with concrete a 570-foot section of another channel that feeds into the Glen from Winifred Canyon. Paid for by the U.S. Soil Conservation Service.

* $50,000 to clean out the existing debris barrier at the top of the Glen from rains of years past. The county, Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state Office of Emergency Services all chipped in to pay for the January cleaning.

* $50,000 to remove sediment, boulders and other debris from the Glen in the wake of the Feb. 7 mud flow. The Soil Conservation Service is picking up the bill for this, officials said, because it was responsible for ongoing construction projects when last week’s mud flow hit.

* $180,000 for straw matting that volunteers are laying down on about 70 acres of denuded hillside above the Glen. The Forest Service, which has jurisdiction over that portion of the Glen’s watershed, is picking up the tab for this erosion control effort.

* An estimated $900,000 proposed to build three large culverts that car-size boulders could pass through. Seen as a long-term solution to the mudflow problem.