OJAI : Sound Barrier OKd for Pumping Plant

In response to residents’ complaints, Casitas Municipal Water District authorized $15,700 Wednesday to erect a sound barrier at a pumping station behind Soule Park Golf Course.

“It’s going to be a big improvement, especially in the summer when the noise is worse,” said Sally Payne Janover, a Fairway Lane resident for five years. Janover, her husband Michael and five neighbors have complained about the noise since last September.

“One has this high-pitched whine that makes your ears feel like they are ringing from the cosmos,” Janover said, adding that she and her husband sold their Fairway Lane home this week but not because of the noise.

The pumping plant, behind the 17th tee at the golf course, is one of several used to distribute Lake Casitas water to Ojai residents and ranchers in the eastern valley.

“With the drought, we were pumping pretty continuously last summer, and with the Edison rate structure, we pump more at night than before,” said Richard Hajas, assistant district general manager.

The water district also hired an acoustical engineer who said the noise exceeds acceptable standards.

Ojai planners recommended that a wall 10 feet high and 100 feet long be built with tan masonry and screened with shrubbery. The water board approved the plans and funds Wednesday on an emergency basis because it was not in this year’s budget, Hajas said.