OJAI VALLEY : Water Rate Increase Worries Farmers

A western Ventura County water district raised rates by pennies a month for residential customers, but farmers of the Ojai Valley say the nearly 10% hike in their rates could drive them off their ranches.

The Casitas Municipal Water District, which serves about 55,000 people and 280 farms in the Ojai Valley and Ventura, raised rates effective July 1 by an average of 6.3% overall. For home dwellers, rates were raised by an average of about 3%, or about 41 cents a month.

The district raised rates for agricultural users by 9.6%.

That’s an increase of $900 a year for DeWayne Boccali, who owns a 126-acre ranch in the Upper Ojai Valley. “They don’t want agriculture,” he said of district officials. “They say they do, but they don’t.”

Tom Munzig, president of the 400-acre Topa Topa Ranch, said that while he anticipated the increase, he is worried about the future of agriculture in the Ojai Valley.

Casitas directors voted the rate increase Wednesday to help recoup the increasing costs of providing water to its customers.

But the need for conservation will force another price change early next year if Casitas directors impose a rationing plan to be discussed at a hearing June 12. Under the plan, residents would have to cut back their water use by 20% over three years or pay penalties.

Directors on Wednesday also considered and approved a study on the impact to the environment that would result if the district builds a $25-million water treatment plant near Lake Casitas. Nearly 100 people protested the directors’ move, claiming that they had not been given enough time to see that all their environmental concerns were addressed.

But the board rejected the calls for a delay and certified the report on a 3-1 decision with board president Larry Whelan casting the dissenting vote.