Pumping Irony

SIMI VALLEY —  The irony of the problem faced by many residents of the city’s west end can be seen flowing down the streets.

In a city that imports its water from big northern rivers, part of a region where water has traditionally been a commodity almost worth its weight in gold, Simi Valley has too much of it.

So much, in fact, that it’s leaking out of the ground. Rising ground water has soured the spirits of residents who only half-jokingly say they must now put pontoons on their lawn mowers.

“It’s a complete mess around here,” said Wallace Street resident Jim Lytle, who has watched his prized fruit trees and grassy lawn drown in brackish puddles. “There’s water seeping up everywhere and it’s ruining everything.”

But all that may change soon if the city has its way and begins pumping to reduce the water table. That, however, may create a whole new set of problems that could leave residents sunk for the foreseeable future.

In a unanimous vote this week, the City Council approved two studies that will find out where to place a pump and what to do with the water once it’s out of the ground.

The studies will also determine whether it’s feasible to reclaim the water for possible blending with water provided by the Calleguas Municipal Water District or whether to dump it into the Arroyo Simi.

The recommendations will be presented to the council in late June or July.

Their action pleased some residents who have criticized the council for not taking action sooner.

“Let’s just say it’s encouraging that the council seems to be taking this seriously and realizes that this problem isn’t just going to go away,” said David Timms, who owns property on Wallace Street.

While a solution to the problem remains elusive, the causes are well known.

According to a 1985 report compiled by Leighton and Associates Inc., a geotechnical firm hired by the city to examine the problem, the weeping streets and sidewalks can be blamed on development.

Once, Simi Valley was just a small hamlet inhabited by farmers and surrounded by lush row crops and citrus orchards. Farmers sank hundreds of wells to tap the aquifers and irrigate their crops.

The water table dropped to more than 100 feet deep until 1962, when the builders came.

The verdant cropland was swallowed and replaced by tract homes and strip malls. The pumping stopped. The wells were capped. With each year’s rainfall, the water level rose until it began bubbling out of the ground six years ago.

Today, even on the hottest days, the gutters are filled with water rushing toward storm drains. The front yards of homes on streets like Wallace and Caballero look more like the bayous of Louisiana than lawns.

Green algae bubbles up from between cracks in the pavement and driveways. The sidewalks are stained a dull red from oxidized iron that continually percolates up through the soil.

It has also left playing fields at Hollow Hills Elementary School soggy and is beginning to seep into the soil at Assumption Cemetery.

“The rapid rise of water in the west end is the result of decreased pumping and increased rainfall,” the Leighton report said. “The rise of the ground water is bringing the water levels back to their natural state before man entered the valley.”

A recent plan to pump out the water and blend it with treated water from Calleguas collapsed last month after analysis found the ground water exceeded state-mandated levels limiting the amount of minerals, bacteria and fine sediments in water to be used for human consumption.

Specifically, tests showed the water contained abnormally high levels of sulfates, iron, manganese and fine sediments. The water was also found to be host to a number of bacteria, including non-fecal coliform.

While the bacteria can be treated through disinfection processes at Calleguas, the fine sediments and minerals would have to be filtered out before the water could be blended, which could add another $1 million to any blending project, said Calleguas General Manager Donald Kendall.

“When you start talking about filtration, you’re talking about a lot of money,” he said. “But it’s something that needs to be weighed very carefully in this case.”

Many residents in the affected area have asked that the water be pumped straight into the Arroyo Simi, where it would eventually flow into the ocean. But Kendall said there may be problems with that.

Over the last three years, the regional Water Quality Control Board, which issues permits to municipalities to dump water, has been increasingly critical of any plans that call for water discharge into natural streams.

It recently revoked the Las Virgenes Water District’s permit to dump effluvia into the Malibu Creek watershed and Kendall said the board may require extensive studies of environmental effects downstream before the city would be allowed to dump its water.

Yet some city officials and residents don’t see how that could be a problem considering that the ground water that is currently turning properties into swampy bogs flows into the arroyo anyway.

“That’s a real stretch because all that water ends up in the arroyo anyway,” said Simi Valley Deputy Director of Public Works Michael Kleinbrodt. “If it weren’t flowing in there, we probably wouldn’t even have an arroyo.”

Timms agreed, adding that there are some neighborhoods that already dump their excess ground water into the arroyo. “I don’t see how ours could be any worse,” he said.

Though the city has commissioned a pair of studies aimed at putting a cork in the problem, it has not budgeted any money for the installation of a well or wells, which cost about $250,000 each and an additional $35,000 a year to maintain.

City officials, however, said that money should not be considered an issue and that when they’ve decided on the appropriate remedy, the money for it will most certainly follow.

“It’s a priority for me, and--judging from the comments made at the council meeting--it’s a priority for the city as well,” said Councilman Paul Miller, who toured the area Wednesday. “It’s no fun living in a swamp.”

Kendall said that in the long run, it may be more feasible to filter the water and reclaim it for use. If that is what the city wants, Kendall said Calleguas would be interested in working with them to do it.

“Even though the solution seems cut and dry, there are no easy answers.” he said. “But ultimately, I think reclaiming this water is the best answer.”