Officials Move to Improve Water for Port Hueneme

Local water officials voted unanimously Thursday to begin pursuing a key agreement that would transform Port Hueneme’s tap water from arguably the foulest to the purist in the county.

By next year, the Calleguas Municipal Water District is expected to supply water to about 40,000 new customers in Port Hueneme, the Channel Islands Beach Community Services District and the county’s two Navy bases.

During a special meeting in Thousand Oaks, the district’s board of directors decided to take the first step to annex the Port Hueneme Water Agency, which represents the affected coastal communities. The board will begin seeking approval from the Local Agency Formation Commission, which governs such annexations.

Considered among the highest-quality drinking water in the state, the Calleguas water would eventually be blended with ground water treated at a proposed $12.4-million plant in Oxnard. Although the high-tech plant would not begin pumping water until next September, officials predict the project would dramatically improve the water--now broadly regarded by residents as cloudy and brackish.

“While the plant is under construction, we will be supplementing them with our water so they can take their water softeners and throw them in the trash. They can cancel their monthly payments to their water bottle companies,” said Donald R. Kendall, Calleguas general manager.

But Douglas Breeze, Port Hueneme’s public works manager, said the most important aspect of the project is that it will guarantee a future water supply for residents. The county’s Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency, he said, is asking water districts to reduce well pumping 25% by 2010.

“We are resolving all of our water issues, both quantity and quality,” said Breeze, who has been instrumental in planning the water treatment project. “We are going to drought-proof ourselves and have very high-quality water for the foreseeable future.”

When completed, officials said, the project will provide 3.9 million gallons a day of water that is three times cleaner than the current supply. Under the plan, more than two-thirds of the water would still come from ground water wells. The remainder would be pumped by Calleguas, one of the 27 member agencies of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

Officials predict that some residents will complain about paying more money for their water, especially after many have invested in expensive water purifiers and softeners.

When the new plant goes on line, Breeze said water rates in Port Hueneme will double to about $20 a month. But even with the price hike, the city’s water rates will remain among the lowest in the county, and officials suggest that residents will actually save money in the long run by eliminating the need for water softeners and purifiers.

Although the water in Port Hueneme and the other coastal areas participating in the project is considered safe to drink, the water is hard and tastes bad because of its high mineral content.

The water currently contains twice the total dissolved solids--the measure of mineral content--recommended by the state Department of Health Services. Hard water is cloudy and hastens the corrosion of plumbing fixtures and appliances.

“It will be the same thing as buying bottled water,” Port Hueneme council member Anthony Volante said.

A pipeline now pumps water to Port Hueneme and Point Mugu from wells operated by the United Water Conservation District. Channel Islands Beach and the Port Hueneme Navy base get their water from coastal wells that are subject to seawater intrusion.

The project calls for hooking the pipeline carrying United Water Conservation District ground water to the new facility for treatment. Additionally, a new pipeline would be built to allow Calleguas water to be blended with the treated water.

The Port Hueneme Water Agency, which represents Port Hueneme and Channel Islands Beach, would be required to pay a $6-million annexation fee as part of the deal.

Kendall said the annexation would not raise water rates for Calleguas’ more than 500,000 current customers, most who live in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Moorpark.

“Conceivably, their rates could go down,” Kendall said. “Part of our rate structure is part of a base. The larger the base gets, the lower that number actually becomes.”

Port Hueneme will use money the city has set aside for capital improvement projects to pay for the new facility’s construction. The Navy bases and Channel Islands Beach will also contribute toward the plant’s construction based on what volume of water they will use. Bids should go out in January for construction of the plant, which will be built south of Hueneme Road near Perkins Road.

Local officials said Congress will very likely provide a $2-million grant for the facility because the treatment plant would be the first of its kind in the nation, allowing water industry experts across the county to obtain data on three treatment technologies.

Both reverse osmosis and nanofiltration involve removing minerals by forcing the water through high-grade filters. A third method to be used, electrodialysis, introduces an electric current in the water, causing minerals to separate.

“Nobody has been able to figure out which method is the most cost-effective,” said Lynn Takaichi, a vice president with Kennedy/Jenks Consultants, the environmental engineering firm hired by the Port Hueneme Water Agency to oversee the project. “This will enable a side-by-side demonstration of the treatment method using the same water quality. In the long term it will enable the agency to determine which is the most cost-effective and use that in preference to the others.”