Home › News › Local News
City's recycled water proposal is criticized
Download this story as a podcast!
STORY TOOLS 
More from Local NewsUsually, environmentalists cheer proposals to conserve drinking water.
But an idea the city of Ventura is examining to use treated sewage water from the Ventura River has some worried the move aiming to help the environment could hurt it.
"Normally, the idea of recycling water is really a good one," said Russ Baggerly, director of the Ojai Valley Sanitation District. "In this instance, I don't think it's a good idea."
The city is considering replacing drinkable water it sells to oil companies with treated sewage water, which comes out of the Ojai Valley sewer plant and flows down the Ventura River.
\The plan, which is in the early exploratory stage, calls for about half — or 1,000 acre-feet — of the water the sewer plant puts into the river to be diverted to oil companies. The companies currently use treated, drinkable water to force oil out of the earth.
Karen Waln, a management analyst with Ventura, said the city is always looking for ways to use recycled water instead of potable water to cut costs and help the environment. The city spent $75,000 on the recently released draft plan; the state, which encourages recycled water projects, gave another $75,000.
"It's a lot more acceptable to use reclaimed water than treated," Waln said.
But Baggerly said he believes taking that much water out of the river could hurt its ecological balance, potentially disturbing the federally endangered steelhead trout.
Much has been done to try to re-establish the fish in the river, including building a $9 million fish ladder that allows them to swim around the Robles Diversion, which sends water to Lake Casitas. Baggerly is also the chairman of the Casitas Municipal Water District Board of Directors, which paid for the ladder.
"We already spent millions of dollars to try to rehabilitate the habitat in the Ventura River," he said. "Now we are thinking about taking more than half of that water away?"
But Waln pointed to the draft report, which says the effects of taking that water can be mitigated and likely won't have an adverse effect.
Ultimately, the city could move forward even if the sanitation district opposes the project. It owns the water that comes out of the sewage plant and leases the property to the district.
Posted by potatoebay on August 11, 2007 at 5:53 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm all for protecting and preserving the enviroment, but if the steelhead went away, it wouldn't break my heart. It's time we put people before fish. We have spent too much money for that project
Posted by jeff93024 on August 11, 2007 at 9:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
We've been putting people before fish -- and nature in general -- for most of the history of humankind. I'm all for evening things out a bit in the favor of the fish this time.
Posted by star on August 12, 2007 at 5:21 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I don't feel a lot of love for the steelhead. But my son may, and his children might, too.
We're just borrowing this planet from our kids, after all. Let's show it -- and them -- a little respect.
Posted by fdsa on August 12, 2007 at 5:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)
What they SHOULD do is divert the drinking water from Camarillo into the river. We know how awful Camarillo water already is so it might kill the fish. So instead of that, why not send the Camarillo water to the treatment plant, realease it into the river, and then supply the treated water to Camarillo. In exchange, Camarillo sewage water can be treated and then sold to the oil companies... then everybody will be happy.
Posted by alhynson on August 13, 2007 at 12:20 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The city is in the process of installing a ZENON ZeeWeed@ water filtration system at the Ventura Avenue plant. ZENON ZeeWeed@ filtration system has capabilities of seawater desalination. Construction is scheduled to be completed in November 2007.
What is ZENON ZeeWeed@? Are we going to get high from consuming h2o?
Poseidon Resources Corporation has been working in a public-private partnership with the City of Carlsbad, CA to construct the 50-Million-Gallon-Per-Day (MGD) desalination plant. The facility, which will draw water from the Pacific Ocean to create a cost-certain, drought-proof supply of fresh water for San Diego County, will dramatically reduce the area’s dependence on imported water from the Sacramento San Joaquin Bay Delta and the Colorado River.
Poseidon Resources also announced the selection of GE’s ecomagination-certified, ZeeWeed® ultrafiltration (UF) technology for the Carlsbad Seawater Desalination Plant.
Posted by JepsonVash on August 13, 2007 at 7:36 p.m. (Suggest removal)
i don't see how letting the river degrade to the point of non-function helps humans either.
Really, if we got rid of completely wasteful, useless expenditures of water, such as the huge lawns around commercial and government buildings, there would be enough water for everyone (even the fish).
(Requires free registration.)
Article discussions on this site are to support community debates of issues related to our stories and editorials.
Discussions should not stray from the subject of the story or editorial.
We do not allow the following:
We reserve the right to delete threads and/or ban users for these or other reasons we deem necessary.
Opinions are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.