LAKE CASITAS : Water District Ends 3 Years of Restrictions
Two weeks after heavy rains sent water coursing down the Lake Casitas spillway, the Casitas Municipal Water District has voted to rescind a three-year drought alert restricting the use of its water supply.
The decision, approved during the district’s board meeting Wednesday night, means that new Casitas customers seeking to buy water from the district and residents seeking to increase their allotments will be allowed to do so for the first time since 1990, Casitas General Manager John Johnson said.
The decision will immediately affect between 20 and 50 people who want to expand ranches or build houses, Johnson said.
“The lake has refilled and we also have much more ground water than we’d previously thought,” said Dick Barnett, director of the agency’s engineering department. “We are much better prepared to handle a drought situation than we were previously.”
The original declaration was made in April, 1990, and had been renewed by the board until this year, Barnett said.
Casitas serves 60,000 customers, mostly in the Ojai Valley and Ventura.
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