Seasonal Water Exchange Proposed

The Casitas Municipal Water District is expressing interest in a water exchange plan with an Ojai water company, pending a careful look at environmental and water rights issues.

“In this water emergency we’re going to have to all work together,” Laurence Whelan, board vice president, said last week. “I appreciate Southern California Water coming to us with this offer.”

The Southern California Water Co. has proposed to pump excess water in the winter from its four wells around the city to be stored either in the lake or elsewhere in the Casitas system, which supplies thousands of customers in Ventura County.

In exchange, Southern California Water would receive more lake water in the summer, when its pumps have difficulty keeping up with the increased demand in Ojai.

The private utility buys about 25% of its water from Casitas in the summer, said Donald Twomley, company vice president of water resources.

The company has offered to pay all costs for the pumps and pipelines to move water into the Casitas system from its San Antonio Creek station six miles east of the lake.

But Casitas’ directors are worried about the quality of the ground water they would receive in the exchange. They also fear that pumping more water from the aquifer might lower supplies for citrus ranchers and other well users.

Casitas Board President James W. Coultas, a citrus rancher in eastern Ojai, questioned impacts on the valley’s aquifer, and whether it is fair to let one water company trade its water, but not other well users.