THE DROUGHT: HOUSING : Casitas Water District Puts 8 Projects on Hold for Year

In a tough response to the Ojai Valley’s growing water problems, local officials are putting Ojai’s first affordable housing project on hold for at least a year and dramatically scaling down requests for water from area ranchers.

Directors of the Casitas Municipal Water District told eight applicants Wednesday that they will have to wait at least one year to receive a promise of water service from either Casitas or other water companies in the district.

The utility imposed the one-year moratorium on new or expanded services to buy time to study both the effects of the four-year drought and spiraling demands on water from residential and agricultural growth, particularly hillside avocado ranching.

The board delayed approvals of new water hookups for one year for a 21-unit affordable home project that Cabrillo Economic Development Corp. had hoped to start building this year.

Also placed on hold for a year were requests for service for new buildings at Ojai Valley School and Camp Ramah, as well as for 20 houses in the Flying H Ranchos’ 58-lot subdivision in the upper Ojai Valley.

But the board decided to provide service to 15 other property owners who either applied before an April deadline or whose projects will not add to the increasing demand on Lake Casitas water.

Projects approved ranged from single-home remodelings to a small shopping center on El Roblar Drive, one of 10 projects that the Meiners Oaks County Water District had promised to service before Casitas declared the shortage emergency last month.

Casitas directors also decided to set up an appeal process for applicants who are delayed service and to start a waiting list to indicate priorities for service when the moratorium is lifted. District engineers will evaluate Casitas’ water supply in April, 1991, to determine if it needs to be extended.

Shull Bonsall, an owner of the Canada Larga Ranch, criticized the board for not securing water from the State Water Project, although a pipeline route is under review.

“I’ve been given the shaft,” Bonsall said.

The board slashed Bonsall’s request for an annual 1,459 acre-feet of water to a 14 acre-foot ration, which will serve the 10-square-mile ranch that encompasses Weldon and Canada Larga canyons north of Ventura.

Although Bonsall paid a $140,000 fee for six new meters March 22, just before the water district adopted the moratorium, Casitas returned his check.

John Johnson, district general manager, said the utility cannot grant Bonsall such a large amount of water without cutting off other customers.

The district sold 26,253 acre-feet of water in 1989, which exceeds the annual 21,920 acre-feet that officials said should be withdrawn from Lake Casitas to withstand a predicted 20-year dry cycle. An acre-foot equals the amount an average family of four is said to use in one year.

“We’ve all been given the shaft,” said Laurence Whelan, board vice president. “The fact is that we don’t have any water.”

Bonsall said that his springs are dry and that he has to haul water for his four worker dwellings and 1,000 cattle.

Johnson recommended that the ranch receive four acre-feet a year to serve a total of seven houses. Board Chairman James W. Coultas said another 10 acre-feet would be needed to water the cattle. When Coultas asked Bonsall several times why he needed more than that, Bonsall said the cypress trees around his house are turning brown.

According to an engineering consultant who submitted a letter on Bonsall’s behalf, the water is for future agricultural use on 575 acres. But Bonsall told the board: “We’re not talking about planting trees; we’re talking about watering cattle.”

In 1985, the Bonsall family leased 500 acres of the ranch to Waste Management of California for a proposed landfill to serve western Ventura County. Casitas has yet to promise any water for the landfill, which is estimated to require 60 acre-feet a year once it is built.

Asked outside the meeting if his request includes water for the proposed landfill, Bonsall said the landfill was not part of the application.

Casitas provides water directly to about 2,800 customers, of which 15 are other water agencies serving a combined total of 55,000 people in the Ojai Valley and western Ventura.