Record Amount of Water Diverted at Dam

The drought-breaking storms of last winter allowed the United Water Conservation District to divert a record amount of water at the Freeman Diversion dam, officials said Friday.

The Freeman dam, which was built in 1991 to span 1,700 feet across the Santa Clara River near Saticoy, diverted 105,000 acre-feet of water since October.

Water captured at the Freeman is spread out in ponds and allowed to percolate into the ground to replenish underground basins. A smaller portion of the water feeds a pipeline to the Oxnard Plain for irrigation there.

In addition to the water already diverted, United has begun releasing water stored in Lake Piru. The district plans to send 40,000 acre-feet of water into Piru Creek and down the Santa Clara River to be captured by the Freeman dam.

That would bring the total amount of water spread to replenish aquifers to nearly 140,000 acre-feet.

“This is an astonishing amount of water,” said Frederick Gientke, general manager at United. “This year marks the second consecutive year that we have spread record amounts of water.”

Last year, the district spread 75,000 acre-feet of water into ponds to replenish the water basins.

The basins are depleted when cities and farms pump more water than rainfall alone can replenish. United operates the Freeman dam and the release program from Lake Piru to help replenish the aquifers.

An acre-foot of water is enough to serve the needs of one or two households for one year, depending on their usage.