LAKE CASITAS : County Frustrates Water Hookup Ban

Ventura County building rules are making it hard for the Casitas Municipal Water District to enforce its hookup moratorium.

The county is still issuing building permits for the types of projects the water district began denying service to seven months ago.

Casitas officials said this is putting builders in a bind, jeopardizing the district’s water supply and leaving its 14 resale water agencies open to heavy fines for violating the moratorium if they supply the water.

The district declared a water shortage April 11 and imposed a ban on new or expanded water services on all its resale agencies throughout the Ojai Valley, the Rincon and western Ventura.

However, William Windroth, head of the county Resource Management Agency’s building and safety division, said his department has no authority to deny permits for home remodeling, swimming pools and other projects that can violate the moratorium if they increase water consumption.

Casitas engineering manager Dick Barnett asked Windroth in July to refer all those builders to the water companies so conservation measures could be formulated. Barnett recently wrote to Windroth asking why those referrals are not occurring.

“I suggested that we sit down with the county counsel to discuss this,” Windroth said this week, adding that his department is already operating under the counsel’s advice on the matter.