OJAI VALLEY : Trout Live Through 4-Day Effluent Test

Ojai Valley Sanitary District officials are encouraged that several dozen rainbow trout survived 96 hours in the Ventura River during a recent test.

The test was part of a study on how sewage effluent from the district’s treatment plant affects wildlife in the river.

“We are encouraged that they lived, because that tells us our effluent, at this point, is not killing the fish,” said Eric Oltmann, district general manager.

A dozen trout minnows were caged at three locations in the river. One cage was submerged about 1,650 feet upriver from the treatment plant, another was placed 50 feet downriver from the plant and the third went in the river near Shell Road, about 5,000 feet downriver.

After four days, the survival rate was 100%, Oltmann said. Anything less than a 90% survival rate means such tests must be redone or the reasons for any fish deaths studied.

The trout study is one of many tests the district was ordered to undertake by the Regional Water Quality Control Board to continue operating its treatment plant near Canada Larga Road. The plant discharges about 2 million gallons of treated effluent into the river each day.

Excessive plant growth and low levels of oxygen have caused fish deaths in the river and the district must determine if its effluent is causing those problems.