COUNTYWIDE : Water District Turns to Colorado River

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has reactivated an old pump station in Burbank to deliver Colorado River water to Ventura County.

The county has not received water directly from the Colorado River since 1972, when the district began pumping State Water Project supplies from Lake Castaic in Los Angeles County, MWD spokesman Bob Gomperz said.

Except for higher mineral content and a slight odor of chlorine, customers will be unable to detect any difference in the water, Gomperz said.

MWD reactivated the pumps because of massive cuts in state supplies, Gomperz said. MWD is expected to receive only 10% of the water it requested this year. The Colorado River supplies about half of MWD’s water supplies in Southern California.

Normally the water that comes to the Southern California area from the Colorado River would go to customers in Riverside and San Diego counties.

However, with the addition of the pump, water will travel through a 26-mile-long pipe from Burbank to Ventura County, where it is distributed by the Calleguas Municipal Water District to five cities.

Calleguas is the main supplier for Camarillo, Moorpark, Oxnard, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks.