New Reservoir System in Operation : Conservation: Former gravel basin in Saticoy is capable of storing enough water annually for about 8,000 families.

A project touted as crucial to helping west Ventura County survive the next long drought began operating Tuesday in Saticoy, enabling water agency officials to store vast amounts of rainwater that otherwise would be lost.

State, county and local officials held a ceremony to dedicate the former gravel basin, known as the Noble pit, which is capable of storing 3,000 acre-feet of water a year--enough to serve about 8,000 families.

The Noble pit, actually a system of reservoirs, is part of the Fox Canyon Seawater Intrusion Abatement Pilot Project being built by the United Water Conservation District. The ceremony marking the functioning of the pit comes at the end of an abundant rain year when much of the rainfall was lost because there was no place to store it, officials said.

“The reservoirs will allow us to store water for the times when we need it,” said United general manager Frederick J. Gientke. “It will work as a water bank.”

United, a public agency that replenishes seven ground-water basins in the county, in February began converting the system of three abandoned Saticoy gravel mining pits into reservoirs.

Located between Rose and Vineyard avenues near California 118, the pit will be filled with water diverted from the Santa Clara River, especially during heavy rains when existing holding ponds are at capacity.

Water coming down the river is captured by the Freeman Diversion Dam at Saticoy. The water is channeled into existing settling ponds, which are used to help refill shallow aquifers. From there, excess water is shipped to the Noble pit by pipe under Los Angeles Avenue.

Water stored in the gravel pit would then be shipped via pipeline to growers on the Oxnard Plain.

By replenishing depleted ground-water basins, the reservoirs will also help preserve the quality of water, Gientke said. Over-pumping in the upper Oxnard Aquifer has allowed seawater to seep into some freshwater supplies near the ocean, making it unusable.

“This is an amazing project because it will provide us with a lot of water at a very low cost,” Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn said at the dedication. “It provides water at a very low cost, which will allow us to maintain the agriculture that we have in this county.”

The pit was formerly owned by CalMat Co., a Los Angeles-based mining company. For the first five years, water from the conversion will be used to help restore levels in the upper Oxnard Aquifer. After that, the water supply will be used to reduce pumping from the Fox Canyon Aquifer beneath the Oxnard Plain.

Fox Canyon, the largest underground water basin in the county, has been overdrawn for the last 50 years by growers and cities that have pumped more out each year than rainwater can replenish. That has allowed seawater to gradually penetrate the aquifer.

On Tuesday, standing by the blue water of the reservoirs, Oxnard farmer Richard Maulhardt called the project an improvement over methods used by his grandfather more than a century ago.

“In the 1870s, my grandfather and others built a ditch that would divert water from the river to the fields in Oxnard,” Maulhardt said. “This is a beautiful continuation of what they did back then. We are keeping a product that otherwise would go into the ocean.”