OXNARD : Plan to Pipe Water to 2 Cities Advances

The Oxnard City Council approved in concept Tuesday a plan to pipe water from the Metropolitan Water District to the cities of Ventura and Santa Barbara. Both face drastic water shortages.

The council voted unanimously to pipe through the city’s water distribution system a minimum of 587 million gallons of water a year to Santa Barbara and 195 million gallons of water to Ventura.

The details of the two-year agreement between the cities and the Metropolitan Water District will be discussed and approved at a future meeting, city officials said.

Under the agreement, the city would blend some of its own water with water from the MWD and pipe the mixture to the two cities. The cities of Ventura and Santa Barbara would be obligated to later replace the Oxnard water, city officials said.

Oxnard would also require both cities to pay a conveyance charge of about $750 for each acre-foot of water that passes through the city. The agreement calls for 2,400 acre-feet for both cities per year.

An acre-foot of water commonly would fill the yearlong needs for a family of four. There are 326,000 gallons in an acre-foot of water.

The MWD provides most of the water for Southern California.

However, Ventura and Santa Barbara have never had the ability to get water sent north from Los Angeles County.

Santa Barbara Mayor Sheila Lodge said the agreement with Oxnard will only provide a temporary easing of the water crisis in her city.