In the future, a growing Ventura County population is going to strain the area's water resources.

With that in mind, officials said, the county needs to find ways to increase its use of recycled water to shore up resources and reduce dependency on outside sources.

"We won't solve our water problem unless we use quite a bit of our recycled water," said Steve Bachman, groundwater resources manager for United Water Conservation District. "It's a major source of unused water."

Bachman addressed a gathering of the Association of Water Agencies of Ventura County on Thursday morning for the first of what is expected to be a year-long look at how to increase the use of recycled water in the county.

While other counties in Southern California have embraced the idea of reusing treated water instead of dumping it into the ocean, Ventura has not.

"We are not breaking new ground on this," he said.

Orange County last week started treating sewage that will be used for drinking water. In the Los Angles basin and the Inland Empire, recycled water is somewhat common.

The city of San Diego uses recycled water for irrigation and manufacturing. According to the city's Web site, recycled water is used in many states. In Arizona, Texas, Virginia and Florida, recycled water is added to reservoirs and underground storage basins, which hold water used for drinking supplies.

Camrosa Water District, which has about 30,000 customers in Camarillo and the Santa Rosa Valley, has the most extensive recycling facilities in the county. It pumps about 1.5 million gallons of reused water to CSU Channel Islands and farmers daily, both of which use it for irrigation.

Oxnard is embarking on a more than $100 million project that would use recycled water to fill its aquifers, which protect wells from salt-water intrusion. The project is expected to produce about 6 million gallons of recycled water a day that will be pumped into the ground.

Tony Emmert, water resources manager for the city, said the water will be treated three times, followed by reverse osmosis and ultraviolet rays, which will make it cleaner than the water that comes down the Santa Clara River, he said.

Though the city's current plan does not call for using the treated water for human consumption, that could be a possibility in the future.

But using recycled water faces many challenges, both political and financial. Many people don't like the idea of reusing treated sewage, even if it is clean, Bachman said.

He said he's heard water industry people questioning whether it is safe. There is conflicting information about the quality of treated water, too, he said.

One of the major concerns is whether pharmaceuticals in sewage are filtered out during treatment. Even among industry officials there are conflicting opinions on the effectiveness of filtering drugs from recycled water, Bachman said.

Others issues include whether produce buyers would accept crops that have been watered with treated water and how comfortable people might be drinking water that was once flushed down toilets.

But the use of recycled water has to become a reality, said Jeff Stone, recycled water program coordinator the state Department of Public Health.

"We cannot afford for recycled water to get a black eye," he said. "We need to educate the public on the public health issue so they are comfortable with the use of recycled water."

He said there needs to be better uniformity among local, state and federal agencies about the definition of recycled water and more standards set for cleanliness.

As state-supplied water continues to get more scarce and expensive, it's imperative to start looking at ways to incorporate recycled water, he said. "We are always going to be flushing toilets so we are always going to have recycled water as a resource, and we need to take advantage of that resource," he said.