OJAI : Rains Damage Ponds That Supply Water

Recent rains damaged a series of settling ponds used to replenish Ojai’s underground water supply. Instead of brimming with rainwater, the ponds hold only puddles.

Storm water broke through the raised earthen walls of the ponds, which are staggered along the eastern banks of San Antonio Creek beneath the Ojai foothills.

The original 20 ponds were the reason that the Ojai Water Conservation District formed in the 1940s. The group of well owners wanted to capture creek water so it could settle into the ground instead of washing into the Ventura River and out to sea.

The system worked until 1985, when the Ventura County Flood Control District bulldozed the ponds to create a debris basin to capture rocks and trees that threatened Ojai after a forest fire scorched the hills.

It took until last year for six of the ponds to be rebuilt with $10,000 from Flood Control’s slim budget, said Tom Munzig, an Ojai grower and conservation district director.

When full, the six ponds add 500 acre-feet of water to the underground basin, Munzig said. The bowl-shaped basin underlies 6,000 acres of the Ojai Valley and provides 80% of the city’s water supply as well as serving several hundred other residents to the east.

Although the basin’s water level rose 40 feet in the past month, water experts say it empties almost as quickly as it fills.

When full, the basin is thought to hold 68,000 acre-feet of water. One acre-foot of water supplies two average families for one year, and an acre of citrus trees requires about 2.5 acre-feet of water each year, officials said.

The conservation district needs at least $3,000 to repair the ponds, Munzig said. But under state and county laws, the district has few ways to raise money, he said.

Jim Coultas, director of the Casitas Municipal Water District, said if a new agency is created to manage the Ojai basin, it could help obtain grants to fix and maintain the ponds.

The Ojai City Council unanimously endorsed the plan Tuesday to join with Casitas, the conservation district, and the city’s largest water purveyor, Southern California Water Co., to form the proposed Ojai Groundwater Management Agency. It would be the first agency ever to regulate pumping, sales and replenishment of basin supplies.

The Casitas board discussed the plan Wednesday and agreed to consider it again April 8.