Officials to Toast New Water Pipeline

A mariachi band and champagne fountain filled with Casitas Lake water will help Ventura city officials toast a new water pipeline Thursday that promises to make the city more drought resistant and improve tap water quality.

With the push of a button, officials will release the first wave of water into the city’s Hall Canyon Reservoir from a new treatment plant at Lake Casitas.

In the past, water from the city’s two largest sources--Casitas Lake and the Ventura River--had to be flushed through a treatment plant on Ventura Avenue.

But the November opening of a $9-million filtration plant by the Casitas Municipal Water District will allow Casitas Lake water to bypass the Avenue treatment plant and be sent directly into the city water system.

Eliminating the need to send some 6,000 acre-feet of Lake Casitas water--about enough to supply 6,000 families of five for a year--through the Avenue facility means the plant can be used to treat more Ventura River water when flows are high, officials said.

“The [pipeline] is one of many steps the city is taking to drought-proof Ventura for the future and deliver more water and of higher quality to our customers,” City Councilman Steve Bennett said.

The public is invited to Thursday’s 1 p.m. media event at the Hall Canyon Reservoir on Hall Canyon Road above Sunset Road.