District May Cut Water to 3 Cities

Three Ventura County cities and growers on the Oxnard Plain who have so far escaped water rationing by pumping water from the ground may soon find their supplies cut back severely.

Residents of Fillmore, Santa Paula and Port Hueneme, which take all of their water from underground basins, have not been required to reduce water consumption to date.

But the United Water Conservation District, which regulates ground-water pumping in areas that serve the cities, will consider Feb. 13 whether to impose cuts of up to 25% on its members.

The cuts under consideration would be in addition to water-rationing measures already imposed or planned in most of the county’s other cities because of the statewide drought.

“We’ve been in a better position than others because of the aquifers,” United General Manager Frederick J. Gientke said of the underground basins. “But that time has pretty much gone by now.”

Gientke said the United board will consider a variety of options to encourage or require ground-water users to reduce consumption. The restrictions could come in the form of a surcharge for any water consumed above 75% of historical use.

“It’s a very distasteful process,” Gientke said. “But these are critical, severe times that require severe measures to cope with the drought.”

About 450,000 county residents who depend on imported state water have already been warned to expect dramatic water cutbacks by the State Water Resources Control Board, which will rule Thursday whether to implement the measures. Measures being considered include mandatory rationing of 300 gallons per household a day for all areas using surface water.

Residents of Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Moorpark are already under mandatory reduction programs.

The city of Ojai has a tiered water rate system that does not require reductions for the average user. The city is supplied by ground water through the Southern California Water Co. The city is working with water purveyors in the area to develop a ground-water management authority to ensure a long-term supply.

The state is in the middle of the fifth year of a drought in which precipitation has been 28% of normal.

Gientke said that a county ordinance that requires, by 2015, a 25% reduction in ground-water pumping from the Fox Canyon Aquifer beneath the Oxnard Plain may have to be stepped up.

“We may have to consider immediate reductions of 25% rather than wait 18 years,” he said. If the ordinance were accelerated, he said, similar but less stringent restrictions could be imposed on the basins below the Santa Clara River Valley.

The cities of Santa Paula and Fillmore sit above historically plentiful ground-water basins in the valley, and the basins receive an additional boost of waste-water discharge from sewage treatment plants upstream in Los Angeles County.

But the Santa Paula basin has reached a record low point since 1927, when the county began keeping records, and the Fillmore and Piru basins are also being drawn down, said Luke Hall, a county ground-water hydrologist. Those basins, though still large reservoirs, are being pumped faster than they can be recharged.

And there is no guarantee that the Los Angeles County water will continue to flow, Hall said.

“The suspicion is that Los Angles County will eventually stop some of the flow and try to recycle it in some manner,” Hall said.

The drought causes a twofold problem for agricultural ground-water pumpers. The growers, who use 68% of all water used countywide, had no significant rain in January, which is historically the peak of the October-to-April rain season. So their water use, which usually drops by about 50% in winter months when crops soak up rainfall, has continued at a steady peak summer rate.

In addition, the lack of rain means less water to recharge the basins that growers tap with their wells.

Frank Brommenschenkel, president of the Ventura County Assn. of Water Agencies, which includes 178 water purveyors in the county, said the drought can no longer be looked at in terms of which districts have and which do not have water. Instead, the drought must be handled on a regional basis.

“We’re all in this together,” said Brommenschenkel, who is also the general manager of Santa Paula Water Works, which provides water for 25,000 people in the city of Santa Paula. “Potentially, if it still hasn’t rained by spring, we could be sharing water with other districts like what they are doing to bring water to the Santa Barbara area.”

Brommenschenkel referred to an arrangement that allows the Casitas Municipal Water District, which serves western Ventura and the Ojai Valley, to send water to Santa Barbara. Casitas is then, in effect, reimbursed with water from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.