OJAI VALLEY : Study Planned for Reclamation Facility

Ojai Valley Sanitary District officials have decided to hire a consultant to study how much it would cost to build a satellite plant that would turn sewage into water for farming.

District officials said the study will cost between $10,000 and $20,000, and probably will be conducted by Boyle Engineering of Ventura. If the plant turns out to be financially feasible, it could be built within two years, General Manager Eric Oltmann said.

Oltmann said the new plant could turn 95% of the 550,000 gallons of sewage flowing daily through the system into non-potable water.

The Farmont Corp., which wants to build a world-class golf course on 403 acres west of Ojai, and the county Sheriff’s Department have expressed interest in the construction of a water reclamation facility on the sheriff’s Honor Farm in Ojai. Such facilities separate liquids from solids and can purify water for drinking, or in this case for farming.

Farmont officials say they could use well water on their 2,000-acre property. But they point out that using reclaimed water to irrigate their golf course would be a much more popular choice in the valley, where many residents oppose the proposed project.

Opponents have objected to using the valley’s drinking water to irrigate the golf course, membership in which would be too costly for many residents.

Farmont attorney Lindsay Nielson said the informal offers to the sanitary district--to contribute $750,000 to help build the new facility and to pay for the feasibility study--are being made “totally for political purposes.”