Study Estimates Costs of Tapping State Water : Utilities: Prices of the options for linking Ventura County with Castaic Lake range from $90 million to $150 million and could raise bills between $5 and $13.

If communities in western Ventura County choose to improve and increase their water supply by tapping into state reservoirs at Castaic Lake, they will have to spend $90 million to $150 million, according to a study released Tuesday.

The cost estimates, which include funds to build a pipeline that stretches from Castaic Lake west to Ventura, are still far less than the projected $215 million cost to turn seawater into drinking water.

Depending on the option chosen and the location of the customers, bringing in the water could raise residents’ monthly bills between $5 and $13, according to the report.

The $275,000 study is the first comprehensive look at the costs and environmental impact of augmenting the water supply for the cities of Ventura, Ojai, Santa Paula, Fillmore, Port Hueneme and a portion of Oxnard, said John Johnson, manager of the Casitas Municipal Water District.

“The study looks at what it will cost regular folks,” said Johnson, whose district serves 55,000 people. Johnson and other area water managers said it was too soon after the study’s release to pick the best option.

However, Johnson said cost “weighs heavily” on his mind.

“Preliminarily, I have to go with the lowest-cost option,” he said.

But Ventura City Councilman Gary Tuttle said the rising cost of water from the state, together with the environmental consequences of taking water from Northern California, makes desalination the best option.

“It’s time for Southern California to develop its own sources,” Tuttle said. “We are putting a real hardship on Northern California by taking that water. And we have no right to it.”

Casitas will accept comments from the public for the next 45 days. After that, the districts will decide which option to choose. But Johnson said the issue will probably come to a public vote before any money is spent.

Casitas spearheaded the effort to study how state water could be brought into western Ventura County. The city of Ventura and the cities served by the United Water Conservation District also helped fund the study. United serves Santa Paula, Fillmore, Port Hueneme and part of Oxnard.

Casitas, United and the city of Ventura have a right to a combined 20,000 acre-feet of water each year from the State Water Project. Although they have paid fees each year to reserve their rights to the water, no distribution system has been in place to deliver it.

Cities in eastern Ventura County and Camarillo and Oxnard receive some state water through the Metropolitan Water District, which charges $261 per acre-foot of water.

The options considered in the study include:

* A pipeline from Castaic Lake to Ventura, including a treatment plant to bring the water to drinking-quality standards. The cost is estimated at $137.5 million, or $1,022 per acre-foot of water.

* A pipeline from Castaic Lake to Ventura, with the Castaic Lake Water Agency providing the necessary treatment to the water. That would total $89.5 million, or $872 per acre-foot.

* A pipeline from Castaic Lake to Casitas Municipal Water District in Oak View, including a water-treatment plant, would cost $149.4 million or $1,105 per acre-foot.

* A pipeline from Castaic Lake to Oak View, with the Castaic Lake Water Agency providing the water treatment, would run $99.9 million or $947 per acre-foot.

* Releasing state water from Pyramid Lake into Lake Piru, then down Piru Creek into the Santa Clara River to settling ponds at Saticoy, where the underground water basins would be recharged. This option includes funds for removing the salt that the water would pick up along the riverbeds, and would cost $109.7 million or $1,125 per acre-foot.

* A desalination plant somewhere along the coast of Ventura or Oxnard and a pipeline to carry the water east to Santa Paula and south to Port Hueneme for $215 million, or $2,038 per acre-foot.

The cost estimates are based on all three agencies participating and choosing the same option. However, Johnson acknowledged that the three agencies have not yet agreed.

Frederick Gientke, general manager at United, said his agency wants input from the public before it makes a choice. But he said he has consistently asked Casitas and Ventura to call for their state allocations now, bringing the water down the Santa Clara River.

The other two agencies have questioned how much of the water will arrive at the settling ponds, where it could be pumped to Ventura or Casitas, and how much will sink into the river bottom. Estimates of the amount of water that would be absorbed by the river range from one-third to two-thirds.

If no new source of water is developed for western Ventura County, the report says area residents can count on severe rationing during droughts, high costs and poor quality water.

Officials in Ventura, where water comes from the ground-water basins and Lake Casitas, have said the city needs more water to improve the quality of water for existing residents as well as to increase supplies for future growth.

United Water Conservation District, which monitors ground-water pumping and is in charge of replenishing underground supplies, needs more water for depleted underground basins, which are reaching record low levels.

And Casitas, whose water now comes entirely from rivers and mountain runoff, needs more water to supply its growing service area.

Bringing state water into Ventura has been strongly opposed in the past by slow-growth proponents. But the recent drought and two years of water rationing in Ventura have changed the debate among slow-growth groups from whether the new water is needed to how it would be used.

“We need more water than we have now, I think everybody agrees with that,” said Jerry Sortomme, chairman of the Council for a Quality Ventura. “If we don’t conserve . . . we can just get back into trouble again. But conservation alone is not enough to make up the difference.”