THE DROUGHT : District OKs Study on Importing Water

The Casitas Municipal Water District on Wednesday took what Manager John Johnson called a “major step” toward deciding northern Ventura County’s water future.

The district authorized a $235,000 study to evaluate the environmental consequences of building an $88-million pipeline to import state water into the county. As required by state law, before any project is built, the environmental impact study will consider other alternatives to solving the area’s water crisis, including desalinating seawater and conserving existing water supplies.

Casitas has budgeted $150,000 for the study, assuming that the United Water Conservation District and the city of Ventura will share the cost. However, United has declined to participate for now, citing the need for a legal agreement on cost-sharing before it proceeds. Ventura has not formally answered Casitas’ request but is committed to helping pay for the report, Mayor Richard Francis said.

“This by no means says that we will opt to import state water,” Francis said. “But if after we have all the information we do opt for state water, no time will have been lost.”

Johnson said the study ordered by Casitas, which serves 55,000 people in the Ojai Valley and the west part of Ventura, will for the first time consolidate all alternatives into one report that will offer clear choices on whether to import state water.

“We’re no longer talking about developing alternatives” to solve water problems, Johnson said. “We’re now talking about picking an alternative, and I think that’s a major step.”

Casitas, like the rest of Ventura County and the state, faces dwindling water supplies in the fourth year of a drought. Casitas’ water comes from Lake Casitas west of the Ojai Valley.

Since 1974, Casitas has sought additional water sources, looking mainly to a pipeline that would bring state water from Castaic Lake. Castaic, like Pyramid Lake to the north, is part of the state water project. The lakes store water shipped from Northern California via the state’s aqueduct.

Johnson urged the Casitas board of directors to quickly authorize the study so that the district can meet a deadline to bring the final decision to the voters in November, 1991.

If the Casitas board, along with Ventura and possibly United, chooses to import state water, voters would be asked to approve a bond or some other means of paying the bill.

Casitas board member Al Aviles questioned whether Ventura residents would want to continue paying the bill after the drought abates.

“What would happen if Ventura quit buying water from us?” he asked. “Would we have to double or triple the rates of the rest of the water users?”

Johnson said those consequences will be studied in the report.

United, whose main functions are to regulate pumping from wells and to recharge underground water supplies, already has in motion a low-cost plan to bring 5,000 acre-feet of state water to the county each year, beginning this fall, from Pyramid Lake through Lake Piru and the Santa Clara River.

Casitas and Ventura have declined to receive their combined state water allocations of 15,000 acre-feet through natural waterways because the high-quality state water would become mixed with local water, which is high in mineral content and poor in taste.

United General Manager Frederick J. Gientke said United may yet be interested in helping to pay for the environmental report and the pipeline if the cities it serves want to share the cost.