COUNTYWIDE : New Water Study Will Cost $7,000

To assure its share of future state water supplies, Fillmore will spend $7,000 for new studies on how to import the water, the City Council decided Tuesday.

Fillmore has already spent $16,000 on studies begun last year.

Casitas Municipal Water District, the city of Ventura and United Water Conservation District have spent $320,000 exploring strategies for bringing 20,000 acre-feet of Northern California water to Ventura County each year.

As part of the United District, Fillmore is entitled to 1,000 acre-feet per year and will pay 5% of the cost of the new study.

An acre-foot is the amount of water that a family of five uses in a year.

The combined agencies will spend $136,760 for the additional information that should be available before the summer, said Andy Oddo, senior engineer with United.

Building a pipeline from Castaic Lake in Los Angeles County to Ventura and sharing water treatment costs with the Castaic Lake Water Agency will be one focus of the new study.

Locating the pipeline within Southern Pacific Transportation Company’s railroad right-of-way will also be considered, and United Water has asked for additional information on bringing water through Lake Piru.

Depending on the method chosen, the three agencies would need to raise $95 million to $138 million to bring the water to Ventura County, Oddo said.