Countywide : Councils to Consider Water Agreement

In separate actions, the city councils in Oxnard and Ventura will decide this week whether to approve elements of a complex water exchange agreement to help ease Santa Barbara’s drought crisis.

Through the water exchange arrangement, Santa Barbara would receive water from the State Water Project through various municipal water systems for the next two years.

Oxnard and Ventura have approved the water exchange proposal in concept. On Monday, the Ventura City Council will consider final adoption of the proposal. Oxnard will take the matter up Tuesday.

The state water would be drawn from Northern California rivers and delivered to the Metropolitan Water District in Los Angeles.

In April, the district board of directors approved delivery of up to 3,600 acre-feet per year for two years to the Santa Barbara County Water Agency.

Calleguas Municipal Water District has approved the transfer of water from the district to the city of Oxnard, which would then pass the water on to Ventura.

Because Ventura has no pipeline to Santa Barbara, Casitas Municipal Water District would then ship water to Santa Barbara and withhold the same amount of water from the supplies it normally delivers to Ventura.