Jim Stubchaer, who ruled the roost as the County of Santa Barbara’s flood control engineer from 1962 to 1989, died this past week at age 94 from complications connected to his cancer.
As flood control czar, Stubchaer — who sported closely cropped short hair, moved with a ramrod bearing that seemed more stiff than it actually was, and kept the chit-chat and small talk to a bare minimum — was acknowledged by friends and foes alike to be a brilliant engineer. As a government official, he was formidable in the extreme and even more certain in demeanor. Stubchaer was always accessible, even — perhaps especially — when under fire by environmental critics who contended his notions of flood control gave the natural channels of the county’s creeks too short a shrift. For Stubchaer, his supporters contended, it was always about maximizing the public safety achieved at minimal public cost.
During his time with Flood Control, Stubchaer built 13 debris basins on the South Coast. He was an ardent champion of the State Water Project, approved by county voters in 1990, and an equally ardent supporter of plans to pave the lower reaches of Mission Creek. Ultimately, a much more environmentally friendly and scaled-back flood-control plan would be embraced for lower Mission Creek, but only after much public debate and community agitation.
On his watch, Stubchaer saw firsthand the extreme violence debris flows could inflict in 1964, 1969, and 1971. “We had a saying back in the day for those canyons,” Stubchaer said in an interview immediately after 2018’s 1/9 Debris Flow, which killed 23 people in Montecito. “We said they were shotguns, loaded with rocks and set off by fire.”
Tom Fayram, who succeeded Stubchaer in his post and has since retired, would describe his former boss, as “a genius” and “the wizard of Oz behind the curtain.” Fayram said Stubchaer was way ahead of his time when it came to recycling stormwater runoff back into the ground, both to minimize damage and expand groundwater supply. “I always thought if I could be half as good as Jim was, I’d be kicking up my heels and shouting for joy,” Fayram said. “That’s the kind of mountain I was looking up at.”
