OJAI VALLEY : Panel Rejects Status Change for River

A regional water board has killed a request by the Ojai Valley Sanitary District to designate the Ventura River as an artificial body of water, a designation environmentalists feared would endanger aquatic life.

The California-Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board unanimously decided this week not to create the new designation, “Category A,” for any rivers or streams in Southern California.

Ojai Valley district officials had requested the new designation because it would have given them until 1997 to study how to meet new stringent water quality requirements. That, in turn, could have saved money in the short term by postponing expensive testing for pollutants.

But as a result of the board’s action, the Ojai Valley district will have to begin studying how to meet the more stringent requirements in 1994, when its waste discharge permit expires.

Environmentalists lauded the regional board’s decision.

“I think it’s absolutely wonderful,” said Carla Bard, former chairwoman of the regional water quality boards. “What it means is that the river will remain safe.”

Mark Capelli, executive director of Friends of the Ventura River, said the group is “obviously pleased by the outcome.” The group led a charge to oppose the designation. “It means that the river is going to be recognized for what it is,” he said.

Capelli has contended that the designation could lessen protection of five endangered animals living in and near the Ventura River. Those species are the western pond turtle, a fish known as the tidewater goby, and the California least tern, the California brown pelican and the least Bell’s vireo, all birds.

Ron Sheets, supervisor of the district’s waste water treatment plant who had applied for the designation, said he was disappointed.

“We pretty much lost that,” he said. “I feel that Category A in itself was a worthwhile thing. . . . For once, regulators were trying to work with us.”

The regional board’s decision also affects sanitary districts in Camarillo, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks, which also had requested the new designation.