Countywide : Polluting Cattle Ranchers Could Lose Permits

Ranchers who allow cattle to contaminate a major stream feeding Lake Casitas could lose their grazing permits, Casitas Municipal Water District directors said.

The reservoir west of Ojai supplies drinking water to about 55,000 residents in western Ventura County.

Manure and decomposing cattle along Santa Ana Creek have been a problem for years, officials said, despite enforcement attempts by the U.S. Forest Service and the California Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Casitas district directors decided this week to ask the water quality board to reopen its investigation into Earl Holder’s ranch operations and look at two other ranches in Santa Ana Canyon.

In 1988, Holder was found to have violated state health regulations and Forest Service grazing rules after Casitas officials complained of manure and animal carcasses along the creek.

The water quality board ordered the Forest Service last year to force Holder to remove the manure and keep his cattle away from the creek. The rancher has complied with some requirements, Casitas engineers said, but he needs to do more or his lease will be revoked.

“I’m the only one in that canyon that keeps it clean and is not doing any grazing,” said Holder, who was surprised by the complaint. “As far as I know I’ve done everything I was supposed to. Nobody has told me differently.”

Holder, owner of Offshore Crane Co., said he has a five-acre lease for horses but keeps his cattle penned on his own land. “All the surrounding land that drains into Santa Ana Creek is leased out to cattle. That’s where your contamination is coming from,” he said.

However, Casitas engineers said the three ranches along the creek are of specific concern. Water samples taken over the past two years indicate minor bacteria contamination. Chlorination can deal with small amounts, engineers said, but a major storm could worsen the problem.

A consultant’s report recommended in 1972 that no livestock be allowed in the lake’s watershed. District and state officials decided that building a $25-million water treatment plant was the best way to meet state and federal water- quality standards because there are other sources of pollution, such as recreation in Los Padres National Forest. The plant is expected to be built by 1994.