FILLMORE : Ranchers Organize to Hold On to Water

Concerned that state and county officials may impose limits on agricultural water use, ranchers in the upper Santa Clara River area have formed an association to try to protect their water rights.

About 90 ranchers and agricultural water company representatives met in Fillmore Thursday to form the Upper Santa Clara River Basin Pumpers Assn. and select an eight-member steering committee.

The group, which includes farmers from Santa Paula, Fillmore and Piru, endorsed the philosophy that conservation is best left to local discretion.

A statement adopted by the association says that ground water reserves in the upper Santa Clara River basins “are adequate to support local agricultural and municipal requirements, but should not be exported as supplemental supplies to areas of large population which are short of water.”

Fillmore rancher Dick Richardson, who sits on the board of the Goodenough Mutual Water company, organized the meeting and wrote the mission statement.

He told the group that recent meetings of a drought management task force led by Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn have excluded area growers.

“It’s all well and good to have a Ventura County drought action plan,” Richardson said, “but the Farm Bureau is the only agricultural entity involved in Flynn’s meetings. Other agricultural interests are being ignored.”

The growers group will work with the United Water Conservation District, which manages underground water reserves for the area, Richardson said.

United representatives distributed lists of conservation measures which the growers can implement themselves and urged the group to research their water rights.

The association is expected to hold another general meeting next month.