Restrictions Target Abandoned Wells

Seeking to rid unincorporated areas of abandoned water wells, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors will require landowners to report any wells on their property used less than eight hours in the past year.

The action came Tuesday when supervisors strengthened an old law that allowed landowners to go a year or more without using their wells before being required to report them abandoned.

Landowners with abandoned wells now must have them destroyed.

“The changes in the ordinance give us a better way to get old, abandoned, deteriorated wells that are leaky destroyed, so they can no longer cause ground-water contamination,” said Lowell Preston, county water resources manager.

The updated law also requires landowners to keep water wells capped.

“About two years ago, when a dog fell into an open well and died in the Ojai area, people asked me if we had a law in place that required water wells to be capped,” Preston said. “I had to tell them no. That’s when we started working on changing the ordinance.”

Preston estimated that countywide there are 3,000 registered water wells in unincorporated areas. He estimated a few thousand more unregistered wells exist in that same area.

There are 5,600 wells throughout the county, according to the county’s master list, he said. The county cannot regulate cities, but Preston suspected that cities will begin adopting similar water well regulation laws.

Some landowners raised concerns at Tuesday’s board meeting that although some wells are not used for long periods of time, they should not be considered abandoned. Some of those wells are used as backup in case a working well breaks down. Others are used only for emergencies such as fires.

Preston said infrequently used wells can be inspected. If the well passes, a five-year county permit would be dispensed.

The capping law takes effect in about 30 days. The portion mandating that landowners report unused wells starts Feb. 1.