OJAI : Judge Urges $16,000 Water Company Fine

Southern California Water Co. should pay the maximum penalty of $16,000 for denying water services to eight Ojai property owners last year, a state administrative law judge ruled.

The California Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to consider the judge’s recommendation March 13, commission spokeswoman Kyle DeVine said.

Based on a two-day hearing in Ojai in October, Judge Michael J. Galvin issued a decision Tuesday that the public utility violated California water law by imposing a moratorium on hookups before it received the commission’s approval. However, except for the penalties, the judge’s decision was in favor of the San Dimas-based company, DeVine said.

Galvin recommended that Southern California Water Co., which serves 2,688 customers in Ojai, should be allowed to drill one or two new wells if it can find no other way to stop buying 26% of its supplies from the Casitas Municipal Water District. The company gets most of its water from four wells that draw from the underground Ojai water basin.

The judge also stated that the Casitas district was wrong to threaten Southern California Water Co. with more than $400,000 in penalties if it did not comply with the district’s hookup moratorium. Casitas ordered its 14 resale agencies last April to stop new or expanded service. It threatened water shut-offs and penalties of 10 times the connection fees for those who continued to serve new customers.

Southern California Water Co. was caught between facing Casitas’ fines if it did not impose a moratorium immediately or being fined by the state for not applying for permission to impose a moratorium.

It lifted its hookup ban in late October. Officials announced that they would give the water to the eight customers who were denied service between April and August and all others who apply before the commission rules on the company’s application in March.

Ojai and Casitas officials said they fear more wells and hookups could overdraw the Ojai basin and cause ranchers and other basin users to turn to the Casitas district for water.