COUNTYWIDE : County to Consider $20,000 for Agency

The County Board of Supervisors will consider approving $20,000 Tuesday for the Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency so the agency can hire an attorney to review an ordinance intended to conserve ground water.

The agency has proposed an ordinance that would reduce the amount of ground water taken from a 185-square-mile area extending from Moorpark to the Pacific Ocean, bounded by the Santa Clara River and the Santa Monica Mountains, said John Crowley, deputy director of the county Public Works Agency.

Crowley said that although the county counsel has reviewed the proposed ordinance, he said an outside legal opinion is necessary.

The proposed ordinance calls for a reduction over the next 18 years in the amount of ground water extracted from the area, Crowley said. He said the plan outlines a 5% decrease every five years in the amount of water taken from each pump and well, beginning in 1992. These reductions would be measured based on the average amount of water taken from each of the sites between 1984 and 1989.

Exceptions will be made for wells and pumps that the county determines are already operating efficiently, Crowley said. If the ordinance is approved, fines would be levied against violators.