Stockpiling Water

* Re “District Takes Steps to Stockpile Water Supplies,” Aug. 16.

I was pleased to read the excellent article by David Kelly describing how Ventura County’s water agencies are preparing for drought.

I am proud to sit on the United Water Conservation District board of directors and to have served the district for 17 years, during which time we have done what no other water agency has effectively done in California: take a seriously over-drafted ground water basin that had been intruded by seawater and bring it back to artesian conditions, reversing seawater intrusion in the upper aquifer.

The strategies United employed to accomplish this feat include building the Lake Piru Reservoir to capture and store local water and to provide recreational opportunities; managing an agricultural pipeline in the most over-drafted area of the Oxnard Plain to deliver surface water instead of pumping the upper aquifer; and building the Freeman Diversion Facility, which allows us to bring more water for recharging the aquifer and for direct agricultural use in lieu of pumping.

We moved upper-aquifer pumping away from the seawater-intruded coastline to a more hydro-geologically and environmentally suitable area in El Rio by building a municipal and industrial water system to serve the city of Oxnard and the Port Hueneme Water Agency, as well as several mutual water companies, and we continue to upgrade that facility to meet air quality and water quality regulations.

So, although district General Manager Dana Wisehart’s comment that our sole purpose is to prepare for drought is correct, I wanted to expand upon what is necessary to make it happen.

SHELDON BERGER

Director

United Water

Conservation District

Santa Paula