Ground-Water Management Battle : Ojai: Bill to allow an agency to charge for pumping is expected to become law soon. Critics say it’s a power grab by the district.

For the past three decades, the towns and farms of the Ojai and Ventura River valleys have depended on two primary sources of water--Lake Casitas and a surrounding network of underground wells.

Lake Casitas, created when Coyote Creek was dammed in 1959, now serves as the source of all or part of the water used by about 55,000 people from Ojai to Ventura and northwest to the Rincon.

And releases from the 2,700-acre lake, surrounded by hills dotted with scrub oaks and eucalyptus trees, have been carefully controlled by the Casitas Municipal Water District to ensure that the supply will never run dry.

By contrast, ground water--the area’s only other major source of water--has been virtually unrestricted since the 1870s, when settlers first migrated north from foggy Ventura and into the dry and clear Ojai Valley.

But that is about to change.

A group of Ojai-area growers, residents, two water districts and the city of Ojai propose to form a new organization called the Ojai Groundwater Management Agency. Its goal would be to limit the drilling of new wells, to limit extractions and to tax every acre-foot of water pumped from the ground.

The proposal has been greeted by some as a progressive move to prevent the basin from becoming critically over-pumped, a condition that has forced Oxnard Plain water users to cut pumping by 25% over 20 years.

But others, including some growers, question the need for what they see as an unnecessary extra layer of bureaucracy.

“I don’t quite understand why I have to pay to get my own water out of the ground,” said Ojai Valley citrus rancher Harry Sims. “I think we need something (to regulate pumping), but there are many other things that can be done before you start this.”

In addition, some see the proposal to regulate the extraction of ground water as a power grab by the largest water agency in the Ojai Valley, the Casitas Municipal Water District.

Casitas was formed to manage the reservoir and has no business getting involved with ground-water management, critics say.

“We don’t need the same people, or their minions, who are controlling the surface water to control the ground water as well,” said Jim Rush, owner of the 80-acre High Winds Ranch in the Upper Ojai. “That is tantamount to a monopoly on water.”

Lindsay F. Nielson, a real estate attorney who represents a small water district that demanded to be written out of the proposed agency’s boundaries, said his district was concerned about a possible “hidden agenda” in establishment of the ground-water agency.

“We are concerned when an entity like Casitas, that is not in ground water at all, is promoting an agency like this,” Nielson said.

For their part, Casitas officials say the district became involved only after a group of growers from the Ojai Water Conservation District invited Casitas to join.

John Johnson, Casitas general manager, acknowledged that Casitas has joined the district to protect its own interests. But he said that farmers, residents and water districts will all benefit from proper management of the Ojai underground basin.

“People here only have two sources of water--Casitas and ground water,” Johnson said. “If something happens to the ground water, that puts more demand on us.”

Records show that, over the years since the Casitas dam was built, growers and other ground-water users in the Ojai Valley have gradually shifted their primary water source from ground water to lake water.

Johnson said that Casitas, which will have one vote on the proposed agency’s five-member board of directors, will have no more power than any of the other four groups involved.

Carl Huntsinger is a member of the Ojai Water Conservation District, which was formed by growers to help replenish ground-water basins. Huntsinger is one of the leaders of the effort to form the new ground-water agency.

He and grower Tom Munzig, who owns the Ojai Valley’s largest ranch, began pushing for the agency last fall, a move that coincided with two significant developments in Ojai Valley water.

First, the Southern California Water Co., reacting to Casitas’ April, 1990, moratorium on new water hookups, announced plans to drill a large new well to pump water from the Ojai basin.

Also, Casitas issued a draft environmental report that said water rates for farmers and residents would more than double if Casitas cannot win a bond election to pay for a state-mandated $25-million water-filtration plant.

That would probably push growers and residents into greater dependence on ground water, Huntsinger and Munzig said, straining an already limited supply.

Already since the first of the year, 46 permits have been requested to drill wells in the Ojai Valley, said Glen Luscombe, hydrographer with Ventura County. Luscombe called the number “unusually high.” Only 216 water-well permits were issued throughout the county in 1990, he said.

“The only reason people aren’t drilling more wells is because the well-drillers are all busy,” Huntsinger said.

Munzig, whose Topa Topa Ranch covers 400 acres in the valley’s east end, said he and other growers had also noticed ground-water levels declining in the wells before the March rains.

“We are in a five-year drought, and there is no one keeping track of new wells being drilled in the Ojai Valley or how much water is being taken out,” Munzig said. “We became very concerned about the future of water in the Ojai basin.”

Huntsinger, whose family owns three ranches on about 100 acres in the Ojai Valley, acknowledged that a portion of the increased drilling activity could also be due to the formation of the ground-water management agency, which could limit new wells.

“Nobody knows what’s going to happen, and of course people are scared,” he said.

Huntsinger said he also realizes that some of his critics are frightened by the sheer speed in which the agency is being developed.

Proponents began in December drafting the state legislation necessary to form the agency. They submitted the bill to state Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara) in March. Hart is now shepherding the bill through the Legislature and expects to have it become law in August.

“People told me it was undemocratic because it was going too fast,” Huntsinger said. “But we had to have the bill to Hart by March to get it introduced, or we would have lost an entire year.”

The enabling legislation allows the management agency to charge fees of up to $7.50 per acre-foot of water pumped each year, plus $7.50 per acre irrigated each year. The fee per acre-foot would continue for the life of the agency, while the fee per acre would be in effect for the first three years only.

Ojai residents and other residential customers within the district boundaries would be charged an average of about $8 per year.

The boundaries set forth in the bill include the entire Ojai ground-water basin but exclude the Ventura River County Water District to the south, at the district’s request.

The legislation provides that three agencies--Casitas, the city of Ojai and the Ojai Water Conservation District--each contribute $25,000 to cover operating costs in the first two years.

The bill establishes the makeup of the board of directors. It will include an elected board member from Casitas and the Ojai Water Conservation District, an elected council member from the city of Ojai and an appointed representative from Southern California Water Co. The fifth seat will be filled by a person appointed to represent the three largest community-owned water districts in the area, Senior Canyon, Siete Robles and Hermitage mutual water districts.

Because two Ojai City Council members, James Loebl and Robert McKinney, are also contract employees of Casitas, some critics question whether the two entities will form a voting bloc. But Huntsinger said that, even if the two did vote together on issues, the other three board members will prevent a single-interest control on the board.

“Casitas and Southern California Water will never agree, because they hate each other’s guts,” he said.

The bill also prohibits the export of water from the Ojai basin, a provision that proponents said further disproves the Casitas power-grab theory. Some critics have suggested that Casitas wants control over ground water so that it can serve more water to the city of Ventura or other customers along the Rincon.

But Ojai City Manager Andrew Belknap dismissed the idea that Casitas wants more power and more water from underground supplies.

“Conspiracy theories are easy to throw out there,” Belknap said. “It’s just a general anti-government stand. If we’re going to serve the public, we need to manage the resources.”

Tony Thacher, who manages his family’s Friend’s Ranch in the Ojai Valley, said he remains skeptical of the water agencies and their motives. But he said the proposed agency appears to be the best method to give the growers and residents a voice in the future of the valley.

“We’ve got to do something to control our own destiny,” Thacher said.

Correspondent Thia Bell contributed to this story.