Farms Using Fox Canyon Wells Must Prove Efficient Irrigation

Ventura County farmers who pump from the Fox Canyon ground-water basin must prove they use water efficiently to avoid drastic cuts in their allocations over the next 18 years, under a new measure that received preliminary approval Wednesday.

Fox Canyon Ground Water Management Agency passed the measure to discourage waste in irrigation on Ventura County farms, said Lynn E. Maulhardt, chairman of the agency.

“This takes care of the guys who have been wasting water for years and building up giant allocations,” Maulhardt said.

Robert Quinn, coordinator for the agency, estimated that the measure will affect fewer than 15% of the farmers who pump water from any of the 800 wells within agency boundaries, which include all of the Oxnard Plain and parts of the Santa Rosa and Las Posas valleys.

The measure does not become final until the agency votes a second time on the issue on July 26, but that vote is considered a formality.

The measure would become an amendment to a regulation passed last year that requires pumpers to gradually reduce extractions by 25% by 2010, beginning with a 5% reduction in January. Allocations are based on the average amount of water used annually by each grower from 1985 to 1989.

The new measure approved Wednesday requires growers to prove that their average water use during the base years reflects irrigation practices that are as efficient as 60% of optimal water use for their specific crops in a certain climate.

Growers can avoid reductions altogether if they can prove their farms are 80% efficient in use of water now.

The ordinance was passed to reverse 50 years of over-pumping, which caused basin levels to decline and allowed seawater to leach into fresh-water supplies.