County’s 1st Water Festival to Kick Off

Ventura County’s first-ever Clean Water Day Festival will kick off Saturday and include tours of water treatment plants in Simi Valley, Oxnard, Ojai and Ventura.

But the main events will be held Saturday at San Buenaventura State Beach, which has organizers worried about parking problems because the festival is being held near the Ventura County Fair.

“Maybe we should have picked a different location,” said Richard Sweet of the Ventura County Surfrider Foundation, one of eight sponsors of the local version of the nationwide event.

Sweet is hopeful that shuttle buses and other special travel accommodations for fair-goers will alleviate many of the parking problems in the area.

The focus of Clean Water Day is strengthening the federal Clean Water Act.

Events at the festivities will include a pier swim contest, a beach cleanup and tours of water plants and waste water treatment facilities.

“They’re all our allies in protecting the water, of course,” said Sweet, who heads Surfrider’s water-quality testing committee, the Blue Water Task Force.

The event is co-sponsored by the California Lifeguards and Junior Lifeguards, the California Beach Volleyball Assn., Chart House, Patagonia, Inc., Earth Action and the city of Ventura.

For more information, call 644-2802 or 643-3725.