College Plan Attacked

In the future, if your water bill goes so high that you cannot afford a drink, if your taxes leap into outer space, the reason will be that the Politburo that runs this county and state are going to cram the four-year college down our throats, locating it on the Taylor Ranch. They will condemn 465 acres to educate about 2,000 students! To steal 465 acres of private land will cost a bundle of money, and to plant trees, lawns and shrubs will take most of our water to accommodate 2,000 students, who will probably come from some foreign country like the students in most of our colleges.

The western part of Ventura city gets its water from wells at Foster Park and from Casitas Municipal Water District, which will furnish the water for this project. The EIR says the “safe yield of Foster Park is assumed to be 6,000 acre-feet.” Then they go on to tell us they don’t know how much is taken out.

However, the project is based on the fact that the district has a 6,122 acre-feet surplus. How come then it has overdrawn its allotted 20,350 acre-feet per year over the last three years?

Has anyone seen how low the lake is recently? In fact, Casitas is trying to make agreements with small water companies to use water from their wells during droughts and replace it during wet years. If there is a drought, the wells will go down also and, during wet years, it won’t be necessary to replace the water.

The EIR mentions in one place there might be 4,650 persons, then the rest of the EIR mentions only 2,000 students. Whichever it is, the college purportedly will use only 69 acre-feet of water: “approximately 40 gallons of water per day per student.”

If that is based on 2,000 students, that means each student can have one shower and two glasses of water per day, and no flushing of toilets. If it is 4,650 students, that means 17 gallons of water per student per day, which means three flushes of toilets per day, no showers and nothing to drink! The 69 acre-feet needed for the students leaves nothing for lawns, and there will be lawns, and more lawns, trees and shrubs, and maybe a swimming pool. However, not to worry: the EIR has the mitigating measures all thought out--”low flush toilets and a drip irrigation system with timers.”

This project is not needed, inasmuch as we already have a surplus of colleges all fighting to get more students. To take by eminent domain, using taxpayers’ money, private land when there is land at a cheaper price, and when there is another university 40 miles up the road, is inexcusable and a “public-be-damned attitude.”

The only reason that I can think of for such an arrogant attitude is that the 465 acres would make a terrific football stadium, and the taxpayers can drink beer if they get thirsty, take spit baths and send their laundry to China to get washed.

ANN L. DAVIS

Ojai