CAMARILLO : Council to Consider New Water Tank Site

Camarillo has found a more remote location for a 4-million-gallon water tank after angry Camarillo Heights residents assailed two sites proposed for their neighborhood.

A new report by a consulting company recommends that the reservoir be built in a relatively uninhabited area near Worth Way, which is off Upland Road about two miles east of the proposed Mesa Drive sites.

“It has all the features we need,” Engineering Services Director Dan Greeley said. “There are no homes in the area that are down slope from where the reservoir would be. . . . If there were a leak, which is highly unlikely, [water] would go into an existing retention basin that’s designed to hold back storm waters.”

Furthermore, unlike the Mesa Drive sites, there is no nearby earthquake fault, Greeley said.

Camarillo Heights residents had contended that placing a 140-foot-wide, partly underground tank in their neighborhood would depress property values and leave them vulnerable to a flood in the event of a major temblor.

Opponents applauded the new proposal.

“There are no houses out there,” said resident Mike Kory, whose Mesa Drive home is across the street from one of the original sites. “It’s uninhabited. That’s where [the tank] should go.”

The council will consider the new site at a special meeting today at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 601 Carmen Drive.

However, one of the two original sites near Maria Lane remains an alternative if the new proposal is rejected after more detailed analysis, Greeley said. But switching again would require council action once more.

Greeley maintains that the more secluded Worth Way site could raise the project’s price tag. But the engineer’s report estimates the cost at $3.5 million, compared to $3.8 million to $4.4 million for either of the Mesa Drive locations.