Countywide : Ojai Valley District Debates Water Crisis

The board of the largest water district in the Ojai Valley debated and then delayed a declaration of a water emergency late Wednesday night after hearing a proposal for a one-to-two year moratorium on new service.

The board of the Casitas Municipal Water District, which serves 55,000 residents, including some in the city of Ventura, discussed an emergency declaration and then delayed a vote until April 11.

More than two dozen other districts also purchase water from Casitas, for which the primary source is Lake Casitas, now at its lowest level in two decades.

The board, facing a questioning and often skeptical audience, also set April 11 for a hearing on a more ambitious six-phase conservation plan, which includes mandatory rationing as a last resort. The plan unveiled Wednesday evening also includes a one- to two-year moratorium on all new water service, proposed by Casitas General Manager John Johnson.

About 60 attended the hearing, with many residents questioning the need for cuts and suggesting that Ventura residents should be the first to lose service. Others suggested that oil companies, the second largest Casitas customer after the city of Ventura, should be limited more drastically than residents.

“We will be fair,” James W. Coultas, Casitas board president, told the crowd.

The emergency declaration followed three workshops at which district engineers discussed dwindling water supplies.

Casitas officials said the Ojai Valley is facing a long-term water shortage that will not be relieved by an end to the four-year drought.

“Even limiting water to existing customers will not solve the impending shortage,” Johnson said. The moratorium on new hookups does not apply to existing customers, who can still add dwellings to their properties or expand their agricultural acreage.

Casitas board members also called on other water providers within the district service area to consider similar conservation measures.

“Most of the plan seems reasonable,” said Chuck Curtis, general manager of the Ventura River County Water District, which buys water from Casitas and serves 2,100 customers from Ojai to Casitas Springs.

“We’ve all been kind of sitting back and waiting for their guidelines,” Curtis said. “Their approach to the situation is going to serve all of us very well.”

Southern California Water Co., which serves 7,900 residents in the city of Ojai and buys less than a third of its water from Casitas, has been encouraging water conservation, Supt. Frank Bennett said.