OJAI VALLEY : Sanitation Board to Vote on River Status

The Ojai Valley Sanitary District board will vote today on whether to withdraw its request for a new designation that environmentalists fear will loosen protections for the Ventura River.

Earlier this year, district staff asked the California-Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board to designate the river as a Category A body of water, which means it does not flow year-round.

If the river received that designation, the district could wait five years before starting quarterly testing for levels of mercury set by new, more stringent federal standards.

Such testing is required under the federal Clean Water Act, said Gerhardt Hubner, engineering geologist for the regional board. Without the river designation, Hubner said, the Ojai Valley district would have to start the mercury testing by September, 1994.

District board Chairman Jim Brady said he favors the new designation because it will save money and allow the district to focus on improvements now under way at its waste water treatment plant. The plant discharges into the river west of Ojai.

Board member Stan Greene said he opposes a change because it is unclear how it would affect the district or the river. Mark Capelli, executive director of the environmental group known as Friends of the Ventura River, also opposes a change. He said it could allow higher levels of pollutants to go untested during the five-year period, possibly harming five endangered species that dwell in and around the lower Ventura River.

Three other sanitary districts--in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, and Camarillo--have also requested Category A designations for waterways where their sewage treatment plants discharge. Hubner said no controversies have arisen in those communities.