OXNARD : Water Hookup for School to Be Debated

The Local Agency Formation Commission will consider today whether to reverse its earlier decision and allow the new Oxnard High School located outside city limits to be connected to municipal water supplies.

In a 9 a.m. hearing at the Ventura County Government Center, the agency’s five commissioners will hear Oxnard Union High School District officials argue in favor of annexing the new school site to the Calleguas Municipal Water District, which supplies high-quality water to the city of Oxnard.

If the new school is not allowed to hook up to city water, the district would have to drill a well and pump water from underground, which district officials say is a less reliable and poorer-quality source.

LAFCO, a state-sponsored panel that regulates changes in boundaries for cities and other agencies, voted 3 to 2 in November against allowing the annexation to Calleguas.

At the time, LAFCO commissioners argued that the school district had flouted county efforts to preserve farmland by locating the new school in an agricultural area between Oxnard and Ventura.

Allowing city water to flow to the area may encourage further development on these agricultural lands, commissioners said.

But school officials hope that a recent letter from a county ground water management agency to LAFCO will persuade the commission to reverse its earlier decision.

In a letter dated Feb. 3, the Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency recommended that LAFCO allow the high school to get its water from Calleguas in order to preserve local ground water supplies.

Ground water basins on the Oxnard Plain are already severely overdrawn, which has allowed seawater to encroach on fresh-water supplies.