Businesses Become Unwilling Water Customers

Even as officials dug shiny new shovels in the dirt at a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday for a $28-million desalination plant, more than a dozen supporters and opponents continued to fight over the Port Hueneme Water Agency project.

Despite opposition from a group of Channel Islands Harbor business owners and beach community residents, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an agreement that would force businesses to take water from the new project, even though it will cost them about three times what their neighbors pay.

“We need to move ahead with it,” said Supervisor John Flynn. “Let me tell you, every time you get into a water issue you get into controversy. This was no exception.”

The water agency’s desalination plant is a high-tech water facility that will serve Port Hueneme, the military bases, and the Channel Islands Community Services District, which includes the beach communities of Silver Strand, Hollywood by the Sea and Hollywood Beach. The facility is scheduled to be completed by 1998, agency officials said.

The water service agreement is a 25-year extension to an existing agreement between the district and the county to continue providing water for Channel Islands Harbor lessees.

The agreement addresses the dispute between the services district and the Harbor businesses over water rates. Harbor businesses, which want to receive their water from the city of Oxnard, contend that their rates with the services district are unreasonably high, and will increase when the desalination plant is in place.

The agreement also calls for the district to create a committee composed of harbor businesses and service district board members to review water utility budgets and proposed rate fees. The businesses account for 45% of water use within the services district.

Although the water agency project would have moved forward regardless of the supervisors’ action Tuesday, the newly worded agreement makes it more difficult for the businesses to opt out of the district.

About 20 speakers voiced their support or opposition to the agreement and the Port Hueneme Water Agency project.

“The minute you sign this agreement, it will have a negative impact on the property values of the harbor district,” said Steven Walton, executive vice president of Channel Islands Properties and Tiger Realty, which owns several properties and a hotel at the harbor.

Walton quoted a 1996 study commissioned by the county regarding Oxnard and water agency water rates, which said that it would be more cost effective for the harbor businesses to receive water from the city of Oxnard.

The higher fees will result in a $1.3-million loss in real estate value of Tiger property, Walton said.

“They listen to us but they disregard what we say,” said Fred Buenger, owner of the Marina Emporium theme park, referring to Channel Islands Community Service District representatives. “A hundred and ten percent of those supporting the project make their living off of this project. All of us who are against this project are ratepayers. That has got to tell you something. Think about it.”

But others, like Port Hueneme Mayor Pro Tem Anthony Volanti, said it was in the best interest of the county to follow through on the agreement and support the project.

“This water project is bigger than the city of Hueneme and even the county,” said Volanti. “It has many ramifications for the future.”

Other supporters, including Flynn, said it was essential for the area to find a reliable water source, considering the depletion of wells and the dangers of seawater intrusion. Several supporters disputed comments by opponents who said the services district had not kept them informed of the project and the agreement.

“This is nine years in the making,” said Gerard Kapuscik, general manager of the Channel Islands Community Services District. “It is simply not true that we have not communicated on this project. This has taken a long time, this has been reviewed by our board and I ask you to go forward with this agreement.”

At the groundbreaking ceremony earlier in the day, supporters of the water agency project voiced their enthusiasm for the high-tech treatment plant.

“It feels great because we have been working on this for so many years,” said Douglas Breeze, of the Port Hueneme Water Agency.

“It’s been hectic but the cooperation and communication between the other agencies is the reason we are moving on time with this project.”