Rural Wells May Be Low at 2 Schools

Wells at two schools in unincorporated rural areas of Ventura County appear to be running low on water, and at one, muddy water oozed out of the faucets recently.

At Laguna Vista Elementary School, two miles east of Oxnard, mud was pumped into the pipes and out the taps last week, prompting officials to shut down the well-pumping system for several hours last week and over the weekend while the 2,400-gallon water tank was flushed.

“Something happened down there that stirred up the mud,” Principal Hugh Pickrel said. “We suddenly, out of the well, started getting mud, really a kind of blackish water.”

At Rio Mesa High School near Oxnard’s Nyeland Acres neighborhood, several conditions--including low water levels--caused the 160-foot-deep well to run dry on Halloween night, officials said.

Both Laguna Vista and Rio Mesa High share aquifers with surrounding agricultural businesses, which draw deeply on water supplies, school officials said. Because both schools are isolated from developed areas, the cost of laying pipe to connect with municipal or commercial water systems would be prohibitive, they said.

Richard Canady, assistant business manager of the Oxnard Union High School District, said several conditions combined to cause the problem at Rio Mesa, including low water levels in the aquifer that supplies the well and sediment deposits that had accumulated in the bottom of the well.

Also, because the water level was low, the pump--capable of pumping up to 600 gallons a minute--had drawn about as much water from the well as it contained, Canady said.

“There wasn’t much to pump, so it pumped itself dry and burned up,” Canady said.

Within 24 hours, officials replaced the Rio Mesa pump with a lower-capacity pump, and engineers also lowered an explosive charge into the well to clear away the sediment, Canady said. The 1,800-student school was without water for about 45 minutes and portable bathrooms were set up on the campus for that period, he said.

District officials, however, have approved drilling a replacement well at Rio Mesa that will be between 250 and 300 feet deep. The well will cost about $75,000 and will use the high-powered pump, which has been repaired, Canady said.

The problem at 600-student Laguna Vista has not been so easily resolved.

“We’re getting by,” Supt. Robert Allen of the Ocean View Elementary School District said. “Because of the drought, the well is becoming increasingly unsatisfactory. . . . We may have to do a different kind of water system.”

The district has applied for a grant from the state Department of Health Services to drill a replacement well, but the school is low on a statewide priority list, district officials said.

“It’s enough to worry me,” Pickrel said. “If funding were available, I’m sure we would look at doing some rather serious maintenance and upgrading, including dropping the well into a deeper aquifer.”

The well now draws water from a depth of about 200 feet, Pickrel said.

Although the well appeared back to normal Tuesday, school officials said they are considering alternatives in case it fails, including portable toilets and bottled drinking water.

In a serious water emergency, the school could send its students to other nearby schools for “double sessions,” with some students starting early in the morning and others around midday, Pickrel said. That solution would be a last resort, he said.

All of Laguna Vista’s students are now bused to school, many from nearby Point Mugu Naval Base.

The school, less than five miles from the coast, gets its water from the Fox Canyon Aquifer, the county’s largest underground source of fresh water. Tests last year showed that saltwater had begun intruding on the aquifer.

School officials said new filters have been installed in the system, and that the district contracts with a private laboratory to test the water monthly to make sure it is up to county standards.

John Turner, a senior hydrologist with the county’s Flood Control and Water Resources Department, said the four-year drought has caused water levels around Rio Mesa High, on Central Avenue near Vineyard Avenue, to decline.

The aquifer serving Laguna Vista, however, has sufficient water, and the school district might need to drill a deeper well, Turner said. Or, the well might have a crack in the lining, allowing mud to seep into the water, he said.

But Pickrel said he was concerned because the district has no money for a new well, and bottled water might not be an adequate solution.

“If something was to happen to our well we could be in a real financial bind overnight,” Pickrel said. “Let’s face it, you cannot run a school without a water supply. . . . I would not bet on that well.”