Supervisors Delay Vote on Water Wells

Bowing to protests from environmentalists concerned about more development, Ventura County supervisors on Tuesday agreed to delay action on a proposal to change the county’s standards for establishing new water wells in mountainous areas.

Russ Baggerly, a member of the Ventura County Environmental Coalition, argued that the policy change would essentially ease water well standards on large properties in the Santa Monica Mountains and northern regions of the county, thereby encouraging future development.

Baggerly urged the county to conduct an environmental impact report on the proposed change, because of the potential effect on future water supplies as well as traffic and air quality.

“It’s clear this is a relaxation in [the county’s] well test standard,” he said. “More wells will pass, which means there will be more development.”

The proposed policy change basically gives owners of mountainous properties 10 acres in size or larger more latitude to prove that the wells they drill would replenish themselves sufficiently and quickly enough to justify a development project.

Art Goulet, director of the county’s Public Works Department, acknowledged that the criteria used by the county for demonstrating permanent ground-water supplies is not absolute. But he said the county could draw a reasonable conclusion through a series of tests.

Meanwhile, Supervisor Frank Schillo, who proposed the policy change, stressed in a letter to the board that it would affect only those properties that draw water from fractured bedrock aquifers.

“Because of the area where fractured rock is found--steep rocky hills--and the large acreage involved, there should be no significant increase in population caused by this proposal,” Schillo wrote.

After hearing several property owners speak both in favor and against the proposal, however, board members said they would like more time to review the matter and decided to delay any action until Dec. 10.