CONEJO CREEK RULING NEARS; STATE BOARD EXPECTED TO DECIDE ON T.O.'S PLANS TO DIVERT WATER.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. A 20-year battle over reclaimed water Reclaimed water, sometimes called recycled water, is former wastewater (sewage) that has been treated and purified for reuse, rather than discharged into a body of water. could be over this week. The State Water Resources Control Board is expected to issue a final ruling Thursday allowing Thousand Oaks Thousand Oaks, residential city (1990 pop. 104,352), Ventura co., S Calif., in a farm area; inc. 1964. Avocados, citrus, vegetables, strawberries, and nursery products are grown. to divert up to 10,000 acre-feet of water a year from Conejo Creek. Most of that is treated wastewater the city hopes to sell to the Calleguas Municipal Water District, water wholesaler for 75 percent of the county's water supply. The district would in turn distribute the water to two other districts, which could sell it to farmers, landscapers and other users. The city could make $500,000 a year under what is dubbed dub 1 tr.v. dubbed, dub·bing, dubs 1. To tap lightly on the shoulder by way of conferring knighthood. 2. To honor with a new title or description. 3. the Conejo Creek Diversion Project. Marked by two decades of court fights and controversy, the $9 million project is the first of its kind in Ventura County, and one of the few in California in which a government agency puts treated wastewater in a creek and later removes it downstream, experts said. ``It's the leading case in the state,'' said Elizabeth Johnson, a Sacramento water-rights attorney representing Thousand Oaks. ``I can't think of any other agency doing anything like this.'' A draft version of the state's expected decision includes requirements aimed at ensuring the creek level is sufficient to support turtles and other wildlife, but conservationists are unmollified. ``We have a real concern for the resources out there,'' said Morgan Wehtje, the state Fish and Game Department's wildlife biologist ''' The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. A wildlife biologist is someone who studies wild animals and their habitats. for Ventura and Santa Barbara Santa Barbara (săn'tə bär`brə, –bərə), city (1990 pop. 85,571), seat of Santa Barbara co., S Calif., on the Pacific Ocean; inc. 1850. counties. ``They are valuable, and dwindling dwin·dle v. dwin·dled, dwin·dling, dwin·dles v.intr. To become gradually less until little remains. v.tr. To cause to dwindle. See Synonyms at decrease. in Ventura County. It's just not something you find in any creek.'' The city argues that it put the water in the creek in the first place, in the form of treated sewage and runoff Runoff The procedure of printing the end-of-day prices for every stock on an exchange onto ticker tape. Notes: If the "tape is late" then it can take a long time to print off all the closing prices. from lawns. ``The creek itself was dry before Thousand Oaks was developed,'' said city Public Works public works pl.n. Construction projects, such as highways or dams, financed by public funds and constructed by a government for the benefit or use of the general public. Noun 1. Director Don Nelson. ``That is why we feel we are entitled to ownership of that water. This is basically a water-rights issue, which is a property-rights issue.'' The city has appeased another set of opponents - farmers who occasionally drew water from Conejo Creek as it passed through their lands. Fearing they would have to find other, costlier water sources, about a dozen farmers sued to halt the project, but lost on appeal in 1994. They since have reached a compromise with the Camrosa Water District that guarantees them a water supply for 25 years at a flat rate. ``The farmers could have gone out of business - it was a real possibility,'' said Richard H. Hajas, general manager of the Camrosa Water District, which will buy much of the city's reclaimed water. ``We worked out a deal, and no one is getting everything. But everyone, including the habitat in the stream, is getting something.'' Most downstream farmers have accepted the deal, said Gerald Fitzgerald Gerald FitzGerald may refer to a number of members of the Irish peerage:
``For years, we vehemently fought against it because we thought our rights were being violated, and it got pretty expensive,'' Fitzgerald said. ``We always thought that since the water was going through our property - and causing quite a bit of erosion along the way - we were at the very least entitled to use some of it,'' he added. ``I think most people feel this deal is the best we're going to get.'' There is another benefit to the project, said Don Kendall, general manager of the Calleguas Municipal Water District. The district could substitute the reclaimed water for other sources, such as supplies from the Sacramento Delta. Reducing that use would give the district water conservation credits that could be used to obtain more water in times of drought. The water district and the city will split the credits. That would ``basically make Thousand Oaks drought-proof,'' Kendall said. The project was sparked in the 1970s by the concern of state water quality officials that the county was pulling too much groundwater from the Oxnard Plain The Oxnard Plain is a large coastal plain in southwest Ventura County, California bounded by the Santa Monica Mountains, the Santa Susana Mountains, and Oak Ridge (beyond which lies the Conejo Valley) to the east, the Topatopa Mountains to the north, the Santa Clara River Valley . County officials were told to come up with an alternate water plan or risk losing control over their jurisdiction. A study in the early 1980s concluded that reusing treated water from the Thousand Oaks sewage plant would help. ``We have an arid ar·id adj. 1. Lacking moisture, especially having insufficient rainfall to support trees or woody plants: an arid climate. 2. climate here, and tens of thousands of acre-feet of water being wasted,'' said Nelson, the city public works director. ``It makes a lot more sense than letting it go to the ocean.'' |
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