InsideVC.com
Helen Gao
December 11, 2000 -- Under pressure to import less water from Northern California's Bay-Delta and faced with continuing population growth, Ventura County's main water supplier is in the midst of a series of efforts to develop local water resources to ensure long-term water reliability.
In a recent report titled "Urban Water Management Plan," the Calleguas Municipal Water District outlines a number of local water recycling, ground-water reclamation and storage projects under way and in the works.
If the initiatives are carried out, the report predicts the county will be virtually drought-proof and will have adequate water supplies in the event imported water deliveries are cut or interrupted.
"The prudent management approach is not to live off the delta," said Calleguas General Manager Don Kendall.
The Bay-Delta, a complex of channels and sloughs at the juncture of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers east of San Francisco Bay, provides drinking water for about two of every three California residents. Water taken from the delta is delivered to Ventura County and other points south via a system of aqueducts and canals.
The delta also is home to about 120 species of fish, some of them endangered. Water pumping from the delta is restricted to help delta smelt, steelhead trout, salmon and other fish survive.
Last year, the State Water Project was forced to reduce pumping by about 500,000 acre-feet to protect fish, the district report stated.
An acre-foot of water equals about 326,000 gallons. Each year, Calleguas delivers about 100,000 acre-feet of water to the cities of Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Camarillo, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Moorpark and unincorporated areas.
The Bay-Delta pumping restrictions come amid strong population growth in Ventura County. The population is expected to increase by more than 200,000 in the next 25 years; annual water demand is estimated to climb to 127,800 acre feet by 2020.
Faced with that, the Calleguas board of directors started planning to wean the agency from imported water in the early 1990s. Those efforts are now taking shape.
The district has broken ground on the Los Posas Aquifer Storage and Recovery project. Planned for completion in 2008, the facility will be able to store up to 300,000 acre-feet of water for use during peak periods, droughts or emergencies.
Calleguas and cities in the county also are recycling water and reclaiming ground water.
Next year, Calleguas hopes to start on a regional brine line project that would enable widespread water recycling throughout the county.
The brine line — either one or two parallel pipelines — would collect salt from waste treatment plants for disposal.
Water recycling is limited now, Kendall said, because treatment plants can't dispose of brine. Brine is detrimental to agricultural and landscaping plants.
The brine line project also could enable cities to use brackish ground water.
In January, the Simi Valley Landfill plans to start using recycled water from the local treatment plant for dust control.
The incentive to better use local water resources, Kendall said, is that imported water costs more. He hopes Calleguas will be able to limit future water imports to about 100,000 acre-feet per year and obtain the rest from local resources.
—Helen Gao's e-mail address is mailto:[email protected]———
On the Net: www.calleguas.com.
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