Ventura to Study Different Water Sources : Drought: The city hires an engineering company to evaluate 18 ways of easing the water shortage. Some officials doubt the plans will solve the problem.

Ventura city officials have hired an engineering company to evaluate 18 possible ways of easing the city’s looming water crisis, but officials cautioned that even all the ideas together probably won’t have much effect on the problem.

Among the alternatives to be considered are purchasing water from small water companies that provide agricultural irrigation on the city’s east side, bringing state water from Piru Creek down the Santa Paula River and injecting treated sewage water to recharge the city’s ground-water supplies.

A preliminary report by Boyle Engineering Corp. of Newport Beach outlining the options was formally presented to the Ventura City Council at Monday’s meeting. The company will update the report for the city’s ad-hoc water committee April 17, said Councilwoman Cathy Bean, who is a member of the committee. A final report will go to the full council later.

City officials familiar with the report said Monday that although the 18 options--which, according to the report, “could be on-line within 12 months”--are worth investigating, they are unlikely to produce much, if any, water. The city faces possible shortages as a result of a drought that is entering its fourth year.

“There are probably three or four things in the whole list that even make sense,” said Mayor Richard Francis. “We should pare down the list before we go forward with the in-depth studies, but this is no panacea. There is no end-all solution.”

“Some of these alternatives are somewhere near science fiction,” Bean said. “But when you are faced with an emergency, you have to explore.”

The first five options outlined in the report involve purchasing water from Alta Mutual Water Co., Montalvo Mutual Water Co., Farmer’s Ditch Irrigation Co., Sherman Acres Mutual Water Co. and Limoneira Co.--small water companies that have traditionally supplied farms on the east end of the city.

Francis said that although these were viable water sources, at least two companies have bylaws limiting their customer base to agricultural users. Although these laws could be changed for the duration of the water crisis, he said, it remains to be seen how much water these providers have to spare.

Perhaps the most provocative alternative in the report is the possibility of expanding use of reclaimed sewage water, which is now used to irrigate several parks and golf courses in the city.

One possibility raised during last Tuesday’s meeting between the consultants and the ad-hoc water committee involved using some of this water to recharge the city’s ground-water supply.

But Deputy Mayor Donald Villeneuve, who participated in that meeting, said the possibility has been all but discarded because of the high costs involved in purifying the water to meet state health standards for ground water.

“Basically, it would entail the same process needed to desalinate sea water, so I don’t think it is feasible,” Villeneuve said.

Francis said that if the city used all of its reclaimed water instead of discharging it into the Ventura and Santa Clara rivers, the diversion of water would destroy wildlife habitats and the rivers’ ecosystems.

Another option would be to draw water from wells located on individual farms. “If anything, we’re talking about very small amounts,” Bean said. The city would have to build a pipe system to channel the water to urban areas.

The report also raises the possibility of drilling wells on the Mound Basin, which is beneath the area of the Ventura County government center. But this water, both Bean and Francis said, is high in dissolved minerals, especially iron and manganese.

“It looks ugly, tastes ugly and stains the clothes,” Bean said. “You could use it in an emergency, but people won’t like it,” she said. Francis added that the iron in the water would corrode the city’s pipelines and that the manganese can cause health problems.

Another possibility that will be studied involves pumping more water out of the Santa Clara Basin and the Fox Canyon Aquifer. The two solutions are related because the basin feeds the aquifer. Fox Canyon is an important source of water for the United Water District and the city of Oxnard. Ventura also has a well that draws on the aquifer, which is the source of some of the purest water in the region.

But Fox Canyon already is being overused, city officials have said. As a result, an underground vacuum effect is drawing sea water into the aquifer. For this reason, United is considering cutting back use of this water source.

Also included in the report is the possibility of purchasing water from the giant Municipal Water District, which supplies parts of Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties, including the city of Oxnard. This could be accomplished by bringing water from Oxnard to Lake Casitas. Santa Barbara has already begun negotiating to accomplish this and would be willing to share some of the water with Ventura.

But Ventura city Public Works Director Shelley Jones said that the water pipes bringing water into Oxnard are operating at full capacity already and may not be able to carry additional supplies.

Francis added that such a project would involve reversing Ventura’s water distribution system, which is geared to pump and flush water on a north-to-south and east-to-west direction. Such a reversal would pose significant technical problems, he said.

Another alternative mentioned in the report would be to bring Ventura’s allocation from the state water project from Piru Creek down the Santa Clara River. The city is studying the feasibility of building a pipeline to bring this water into the city, a project that could take up to five years.

Francis said that using the Santa Clara River was a “fairly inefficient approach,” because a sizable portion of the water would evaporate and be exposed to degradation and contamination.

Ventura city spokeswoman Carol Green said the city has yet to earmark funds or set deadlines for the consultant’s study. She said the consultant was chosen because its Ventura office had worked with the city in the past and was familiar with its water problems.