Agency Criticized Over Seawater Intrusion : Environment: An industry group says more should have been done to prevent seepage into fresh ground-water supplies.

An association of geologists and drilling contractors Friday accused the agency in charge of managing the county’s ground water of incompetency for failing to prevent seawater intrusion in water supplies.

The Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency should have pursued methods to reclaim treated waste water and found means to store more water during wet years in preparation for periods of drought such as the past three years, an industry spokesman said.

Joel Barbour, a member of the Ventura County and Los Angeles chapter of the California Groundwater Assn., said inaction by the agency has allowed seawater to continue to creep into fresh ground-water supplies, threatening drinking and irrigation supplies.

“Correcting seawater intrusion was a job given to an agency that hasn’t done its job,” Barbour said. “It’s time somebody did something.”

Supervisor John K. Flynn, a member of the board of the Groundwater Management Agency, said the industry’s accusation stems from a motive for financial gain and ignorance of the agency’s accomplishments.

Since its creation in 1982, the Groundwater Management Agency has drilled deeper wells to abate further intrusion into shallow underground pools and has helped the United Water Conservation District with its Freeman Diversion Dam, which is intended to capture and store additional water during wet years.

Also, the agency is enacting ordinances to prevent pumpers from extracting more water than rainfall can replace, Flynn said.

“We have made phenomenal progress,” Flynn said. The industry group is afraid that restrictions on pumping, and consequently on drilling jobs, will become a statewide practice, he said.

“They are opposed to all ground-water management in California,” he said of the industry group.

The industry’s accusation came as the Groundwater Management Agency extended an emergency ordinance banning drilling of new wells for another six months. The temporary ordinance, enacted in January, is expected to be permanent in six months. It forbids new wells but allows for the replacement or repair of existing wells.

The agency on Friday also set Aug. 9 for a hearing and adoption of a second, more far-reaching ordinance that would cut well-water pumping by 25% by the year 2010.

The ordinances are necessary to retard the advance of seawater into the shallow Oxnard and Mugu underground water basins, called aquifers. Since the 1920s, growers on the Oxnard Plain have pumped more water from the basins than rainwater could recharge, a condition called overdrafting.

Tests late last year revealed that saltwater had moved into the edge of the deep Fox Canyon Aquifer, previously believed to be uncontaminated by the sea.

The Groundwater Management Agency, led by a board of appointed directors and staffed by county employees, was formed in 1982 as a policy-making agency to manage the ground-water basin and prevent further seawater intrusion.

The agency’s formation averted action by the State Water Resources Control Board in 1981, which threatened to take over the United Water Conservation District’s efforts to stop seawater intrusion. Also, the agency’s formation enabled the county to receive $8 million in federal money to pass to United for projects to stop the intrusion.

The United Water Conservation District is responsible for recharging ground-water supplies and regulating pumping for wells in its jurisdiction. That area includes the Oxnard Plain and the Santa Clara River Valley.

United was recently warned by the State Water Resources Control Board that the district must show why it has failed to stop the seawater intrusion or face a reinstatement of the 1981 state board action to appoint a judge, called an adjudicator, to oversee the seawater abatement program.

United, however, said the board was only looking for an update on United projects.

But Barbour said the state board’s action validates the position of the industry’s association.

“Nothing is being done to remediate the problem,” Barbour said.