Water Company Claims Moratorium Is Impossible

A new fight over water is brewing in the Ojai Valley, where a local water company says it cannot comply with a moratorium on water hookups which were imposed because of a continuing shortage.

Southern California Water Co., which supplies 2,688 customers in the Ojai area, said it cannot adopt a moratorium being required by the Casitas Municipal Water District, which supplies a third of the company’s water from Lake Casitas. The Casitas District has announced that it will fine or cut off water to companies that do not comply with its one-year moratorium.

Donald L. Twomley, Southern California Water Co.’s vice president of water resources, said it does not have the authority to adopt the moratorium without approval from the California Public Utilities Commission.

“This is a very expensive and time-consuming procedure,” Twomley said, noting that the company is still legally bound to serve 28 additional customers in Ojai who were promised water before the moratorium was imposed on April 11. All Casitas customers also are being asked to cut water use back 20%.

Twomley also said Ojai’s growth control law “basically accomplishes the intended curtailment.” Ojai’s ordinance allows only 16 new homes in the city each year, but that is still more than the moratorium limit of no new hookups.

He said his company’s proposal to trade water on a seasonal basis with Casitas “would prove far more beneficial to all concerned parties than would a total service moratorium.”

By sending ground water to Lake Casitas in the winter, Twomley said Southern California Water Co. could reduce its summer demands on the lake 50% to 100%.

Casitas officials, however, have been lukewarm to the proposal since it was first presented last November, complaining that the ground water it would receive from Southern California would not be as high quality as lake water.

Now, City Manager Andy Belknap is asking the City Council to wade into the fray.

Still steaming over Southern California’s proposed 35.5% rate hike in March, Belknap is asking the council to object today to the utility’s position that it does not need to comply with the moratorium.

Belknap wants the city to go on record opposing the company, so that any fines imposed on Southern California would not be passed on to the rate payers.

Belknap also is questioning the water trade proposal, saying the city should be part of any exchanges that might affect Ojai’s water supply.

The Ojai City Council meets at 7:30 p.m. in Ojai City Hall, 401 S. Ventura St., Ojai.

The City Council previously backed Belknap’s objection to the three-year rate hike, complaining it penalized the thriftiest customers and provided no incentive to others to conserve.

In response, Southern California Water officials offered March 26 to revise the entire rate structure. But Belknap said Monday he is still waiting for details on the new proposal.

The Public Utilities Commission will hold two hearings on the water company’s eventual rate hike request and Ojai service program on June 25 at 3 p.m. in Ojai City Hall.