Water Districts Move Toward Limiting Use : Conservation: Public hearings are called for on measures ranging from rationing to moratoriums on hookups.

Two of the three largest water districts in Ventura County took steps Wednesday toward limiting their customers’ water. The moves could signal the end of unrestricted water use in most of the county.

Directors of Casitas Municipal Water District and United Water Conservation District ordered their staffs to set public hearings and workshops on a series of proposals. Those measures range from rationing to financial rewards for conservation and moratoriums on new wells and water connections.

Casitas will begin workshops next month to discuss limits of about 450 gallons per household a day and extend a yearlong moratorium on new hookups or expansions. The Casitas district serves 55,000 people in western Ventura County.

“At this point, to add more services would be an irresponsible thing to do,” said board member James Coultas. He urged fellow directors to move quickly to implement restrictions.

“I don’t think anyone is going to object to taking a cutback as long as they know it’s necessary and it’s fair,” Coultas said.

United’s directors, however, leaned toward a more conservative approach to protect their water supply. United recharges ground-water basins in the Santa Clara River Valley and the Oxnard Plain, which serve all or part of the water needs for about 300,000 people and 800 growers.

The United board ordered hearings to discuss limits on pumping from overdrafted ground-water basins, like those near Santa Paula, Ventura and Oxnard. The hearings will also cover measures that would charge a pump tax for excess water extracted over historical levels and offer incentives to growers who convert from furrow irrigation to more efficient drip or sprinkler systems.

But directors balked at a staff suggestion to seek legislative authorization to expand the district’s regulatory authority. “We’re a conservation district, not a regulatory district,” said board member Joe Terry.

Board Chairman Lynne Maulhardt agreed, adding, “Incentives versus penalties is a much better approach.”

The decision to begin hearings in the two districts came a day after the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California ordered cities they service to cut their water use by 20% and farmers to cut their water use in half. The MWD serves 450,000 people in Ventura County through the Calleguas Municipal Water District.

Calleguas, the largest water district in the county, passes the MWD orders through to the area water districts and cities it supplies. The cities of Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Moorpark, Oxnard and Camarillo receive MWD water.

Those cities and area water districts either have already or will soon have ordinances limiting use to match the supply, officials said.

Cutbacks at Casitas would directly affect about 7,500 people in the Ojai Valley and along the Rincon, said district General Manager John Johnson. Other customers who receive Casitas water are already under programs that are more extreme than the one Casitas proposes, Johnson said.

The cutbacks would be incorporated into a six-phase program that would set incrementally higher rates as water scarcity increases.

But Charles Curtis, general manager of the Ventura River County Water District--serving 2,100 people who depend on well water in the Ventura River Valley--urged Casitas to move on mandatory rationing now. Curtis said his district’s well will run dry within six months, at which time he will have to seek water from Casitas. But it would be unfair to impose rationing on some residents when next-door neighbors served by Casitas are not restricted, he said.

“All of our customers are expecting it,” Curtis said of mandatory water rationing. “Let’s get on with the program.”

United directors ordered the hearings on the proposed measures after General Manager Frederick J. Gientke reported that five of the seven basins in the United district have reached historically low levels. Water in the Santa Paula, Mound and Montalvo Forebay basins, as well as the upper and lower aquifer systems of the Oxnard Plain, are at all-time lows. Water levels in the Piru basin will hit a record low in 1994 and in the Fillmore basin in 1992, Gientke said.

Because of the high water level in Fillmore and Piru, which are recharged with treated sewage water that flows down the Santa Clara River from Los Angeles County, it is unlikely that residents of Fillmore or the unincorporated Piru area will have to cut back their water use, directors said.

“Pumpers there have been careful not to over-pump their supplies,” Gientke said.

Correspondent Thia Bell contributed to this story.