Lake Casitas : District to Consider Rationing Water

Increasing demands on Lake Casitas’ dwindling water reserves have forced the Casitas Municipal Water District to consider strict water rationing and higher water bills for 55,000 residents in western Ventura, the Ojai Valley and the Rincon area.

In a grim report issued Friday, district Manager John J. Johnson also called for extending the district’s one-year moratorium on farmer requests for additional water and water hookups for new construction.

On Wednesday, the district’s board of directors is scheduled to take its first look at Johnson’s recommendations. But Johnson said the board will need at least two more weeks to finish any detailed program that would start water rationing or increase rates.

Casitas manages the large reservoir west of Ojai to serve its own growing number of customers and passes through water to 14 resale agencies.

Demands on the lake are rising, Johnson reported, despite the board’s action in April to impose a one-year moratorium on new or expanded water service. The board also asked customers to voluntarily reduce their water use by 20%.

Water consumption has dropped 17% since then, but more than half of the decrease is credited to Ventura’s 38% overall reduction from its own water-rationing program, Johnson reported.

Johnson recommended that water rationing be extended to all district customers, although some live within the Ventura city limits. It is unclear how Casitas’ rationing plan would affect Ventura customers, who already are required to limit their water use.

Johnson said the effects of the five-year drought have placed additional demands on Casitas Lake water. The near-dry status of the underground Ventura River basin has forced the Meiners Oaks County Water District, with 1,200 customers, to shift to Casitas water.

In addition, the Ventura River County Water District, which also draws water from the underground river for its 2,200 customers, expects its wells to go dry in six or seven months, Johnson reported. It will then turn to Casitas for water, as could other small water companies and ranchers who need to tap into the Casitas reserves once their wells go dry.