OJAI : PUC Allows Ban on New Water Hookups

The California Public Utilities Commission has allowed Southern California Water Co. to reimpose a hookup moratorium in Ojai for six months, until the water company stops needing Lake Casitas water.

The company, which provides 80% of the city’s water to serve 2,710 customers, lifted its moratorium in October after commission staff said the ban was illegally imposed.

The commission also ordered Southern California Water on Wednesday to pay a $16,000 fine for imposing last year’s ban without the commission’s approval. The company must pay the fine for refusing service to at least eight customers and for not telling them they could appeal to the commission, the panel ruled.

Company President Floyd Wicks said his Ojai division faced heavier penalties from Casitas Municipal Water District if it did not immediately adopt the same moratorium Casitas imposed on all its resale customers last April.

Southern California Water gets 75% of its Ojai water from the city’s underground basin and buys 25% from the Casitas district, which manages Lake Casitas reservoir.

The PUC ruled that the company should be able to drill new wells or work out a water exchange program with Casitas within six months, commission spokeswoman Kyle DeVine said.

The company proposed in 1989 to offset its summer water purchases from Casitas by giving Casitas well water during the winter. But Casitas officials have asked for environmental studies before agreeing to that arrangement.

Fearing that this week’s ruling would encourage the company to drill new wells, Casitas officials recently joined with the city of Ojai to propose forming a ground-water management agency for the Ojai basin.

Southern California Water, which threatened to oppose the agency unless allowed to join, is now one of the proposed members. A bill in the state Legislature would empower the agency to regulate all basin pumping and water sales.