Ventura Seeks Boost in Use of Wells to Ease Drought

The city of Ventura could make up nearly 75% of its water shortage if the Regional Groundwater Management Assn. would relax regulations and allow the city to pump more water out of the Santa Paula Basin, city officials said Monday.

Vice Mayor Don Villenueve said a study on solutions to the city’s acute water crisis have determined that the city could obtain up to 4,800 additional acre-feet of water each year by completing work on a well under construction in Saticoy and by increasing the productivity of the city’s well near the Olivas golf course on the east end of the city.

One acre-foot of water typically takes care of the yearly water needs of a family of four.

However, the city is under instructions by the regional ground-water board to reduce usage of ground water by 5%, Villenueve said. “They would have to approve our expansion of ground-water usage on an emergency basis,” Villenueve said.

In a related development, the city’s public information office announced that the city had cut back its monthly water use from 21 million gallons a day to 16.1 million gallons a day between April 12 and May 11, compared to the same period last year.