OXNARD/PORT HUENEME : Water District Lowers Its Pumping Charges

Customers of the United Water Conservation District will pay $1 less per acre-foot in pumping charges beginning July 1, water district officials said this week.

The water district’s board of directors voted to lower the pump charge from $4 per acre-foot to $3 an acre-foot, said Frank Royer, assistant general manager of the United Water Conservation District.

An acre-foot is roughly the amount of water a family of four uses in one year.

“It’s nice to be able to do this at a time when all the other rates are going up,” Royer said.

The district two years ago raised the rate from $2.50 to $4 per acre-foot in anticipation of increased operating costs, including a state plan to divert money from special districts to fund public education, Royer said.

But officials pared the district’s operating expenses and decided not to fill up to three vacant positions of the 40-employee agency, prompting the rate reduction, which will be in effect at least through June, 1995, Royer said.

The district is responsible for gathering runoff water in winter months and using it to refill underground aquifers in the Santa Clara River Valley and the Oxnard Plain.

United has about 1,000 customers, including hundreds of farmers and the cities of Port Hueneme and Oxnard.

Ben Wong, the utilities director for the city of Oxnard, said the price cut was welcome.

“We’re certainly pleased to hear that,” said Wong, who said Oxnard buys about 6,000 acre-feet of water each year from the United Water Conservation District.

“We’re holding the (Oxnard water) rate status quo for the coming fiscal year, and to me, that translates to a rate reduction,” he said.