Water District Is Sued Over Gravel Pit Plan

A Ventura County man has sued an area water district over a plan to turn an abandoned sand and gravel pit into a pond to be used to replenish ground-water basins and help prevent seawater intrusion into the county’s largest underground water supply.

John S. Garrison contends in his lawsuit that the United Water Conservation District board of directors should delay a plan to use one of seven gravel pits near the Santa Clara River as a water storage pond until the potential impacts on the environment are studied.

But water district officials, who want to expand the project to include the six nearby pits if the first project is successful, say they do not know what the impacts on the environment would be until they complete the pilot project.

“If this project is successful . . . then we would perform an environmental study using the data we have gained,” Assistant General Manager Frank Royer said Monday.

The board of directors approved the plan last month based on a finding that no adverse effects would result.

The ponds would allow water to percolate through the ground and help stem the intrusion of seawater into the Fox Canyon Aquifer, the county’s largest underground fresh water reserve.

Garrison is asking a Superior Court judge to grant an injunction to stop the project until an environmental impact report is completed. Garrison claims in the suit that the decision to approve the plan without a thorough analysis of its consequences “fails to address the potential cumulative environmental impacts” to agriculture and future development.