Owner to Sell Land Near Moorpark for Water Storage Project

Ending a struggle that threatened to delay a huge water storage project, a landowner near Moorpark has agreed to sell his land and allow for a backup water supply underground.

Water officials Wednesday said the land deal will ease the way for a project to store millions of gallons of water needed to serve about 500,000 customers from Oxnard to Simi Valley in case of drought or earthquake.

“It definitely allows the project to stay on schedule,” said Don Kendall, general manager of the Calleguas Municipal Water District.

The project is more environmentally friendly than flooding a valley for a reservoir and would greatly increase the reliability of Ventura County’s water supply, Kendall said.

“Time is critical to us,” Kendall said. “We’re working against being without water during an earthquake.”

Calleguas currently receives state water from Northern California via a single, eight-foot diameter pipeline through the Santa Susana Mountains. If the aqueduct breaks in an earthquake, the water in the proposed underground storage basin could be pumped out for the residents who rely on Calleguas for their water. The district serves Thousand Oaks, Oxnard, Simi Valley, Camarillo, Moorpark and unincorporated areas of the county.

The landowners, Joseph and Mary Viramontez, had recently won a lawsuit charging that the water district violated environmental review laws in speeding ahead with the project.

Calleguas had condemned about three acres of the land owned by the couple to drill wells for the project. They complained that they had not received proper notice about the condemnation or the project.

Glen M. Reiser, an attorney for the landowners, said the January decision by Ventura County Superior Court Judge Barbara A. Lane had helped to spur the settlement. “It certainly woke them,” he said.

The exact terms of the settlement are confidential, Reiser said. But he said the Viramontezes will sell the land back to the person they bought it from in 1993. The original owner will then sell the land to Calleguas once the environmental review of the storage project is completed, Reiser said.

“We’re satisfied in every respect,” Reiser said.

Kendall said the district plans to buy the Viramontez parcel, about 20 acres on Grimes Canyon Road, at its appraised market value of roughly $10,000 an acre. He said the district will drill between five and seven wells on the property to inject water underground and to pump it out if needed.

The entire project includes installing 30 wells over a 40-square-mile area at a cost of more than $20 million. At its meeting Wednesday night, the water board was expected to extend for 45 days the public comment period on an environmental impact report for the project.

After that period expires, the report can be certified and the district can begin drilling the wells, Kendall said.

The Viramontez suit had alleged that the project would clear the way for more development in Ventura County and create harmful chemical reactions in the water. On Wednesday, Reiser backed away from those contentions, which were never supported by established environmental groups.