Study OKd for Desalination Plant : Ventura: The council agrees to fund $175,000 for the first extensive analysis. The hydro-geologic report will determine how the facility will be built.

Five months after Ventura residents voted in favor of building a desalination plant, the Ventura City Council on Monday decided to spend about $175,000 for the first major study on the facility.

In November, residents by a 55% margin favored an advisory measure calling for construction of a desalination plant instead of importing water from Northern California.

Since the election, the City Council has hired a project manager, a desalination expert and a public relations firm for the project.

The first extensive study will be a hydro-geologic report that will be the basis for crucial decisions on how the desalination plant will be built, said Glenn McPherson, project manager. Consultants will determine whether it is possible to pump about 17.5 million gallons of sea water per day through beach sands, and will test three locations on Ventura’s coast.

The Ventura-based firm of Staal, Gardner & Dunne has been awarded the contract. In the next five months, consultants will be testing sands south of Ventura Harbor, near San Buenaventura State Beach and near the Ventura County Fairgrounds, McPherson said.

Steve Bennett, a high school teacher who helped lead the campaign to build a desalination plant, said the plant is still needed despite this year’s heavy rainfall.

“The tremendous fluctuations in our rainfall demonstrate the need for a truly reliable water source,” he said.

McPherson said it would be cheaper to pump water from Ventura’s coast than to build an offshore facility to draw water from the open ocean because less treatment would be needed.

“The water from the sand is cleaner, and doesn’t need to be filtered as much,” he said.

If consultants decide that pumping water from local beach sands is feasible, pipes or underground wells would be built to draw the water, McPherson said.

If the sand contains too much silt, clay or other materials, then a pipe or well would have to be constructed offshore in order to pump sea water, McPherson said. Most large desalination plants use offshore facilities, he said.

After the six-year drought began, city officials spent about $1.5 million on water studies, said Ron Calkins, director of the city’s public works department.

“We’ve looked at every conceivable water supply alternative,” Calkins said. Two citizen advisory committees and several consultants have examined everything from importing state water from Northern California to hauling icebergs from the polar caps.

After a campaign last November that pitted state water proponents against desalination supporters, the City Council decided to build a desalination plant, which would be one of the largest and costliest facilities outside the Middle East.

The city of Ventura gets its water from three main sources: Lake Casitas reservoir, the Ventura River and ground water. One study has estimated that city supplies could become inadequate by 2010 if an additional source of water is not found.

“I think everything is coming together,” said McPherson, who estimates that the desalination plant will be ready in 1997.