Dry conditions fuel fire fears
by Chris Wilson

With recent foggy, cool weather, much of the landscape may appear lush and green throughout the Ojai Valley, but the chaparral tells a different story.
According to Ventura County officials, moisture content in new plant growth is about half the projected average and without the prospect of a decent rainstorm on the horizon, the whole valley could be a veritable tinderbox by June or July.
California counties such as Riverside and San Bernardino have already ushered in their fire seasons, months before the usual dates. And earlier-than-expected blazes in Arizona are worrying firefighters that this could be a long and smoky summer.
The VCFD rates plant moisture levels on a 200 point scale, said VCFD Wildland Fire Officer Terry Raley. Based on averages taken every year for the past two decades, those moisture levels should be in the mid to high 160s. Currently they are between 83 and 84 percent, several points lower than 2001 levels taken at the same time this past year and dangerously close to the 60 percent critical mark which usually doesn't show up until late fall.
"We'll be looking pretty good until June or July," Raley said. "But we've already seen some Santa Ana winds, that's extremely different."
Kent Field, a meteorologist with the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District, said rainfall levels are about 40 percent of normal- with only 7.55 inches fallen to date, Field said. As an aside, however, Field did note the valley's air quality is improving.
"We're working our way out of a job," Field said. "Our air is getting clearer and clearer."
Low rainfall levels, however, don't necessarily mean drought. Scott Holder, a hydrologist with Ventura County Flood Control, said most people hear the word drought and they think they won't be able to wash their cars, or that they'll need to have their lawns spray-painted green because of mandated alternate watering days. Neither is likely to happen this season.
A good snowpack in the Sierra Nevada Mountains will bring additional water to the area, if needed, through the aqueduct. Reservoir levels, such as Lake Casitas are also in good shape.
John Johnson, general manager of Casitas Municipal Water District, said the lake is so big for its customer base, that it's rated on a 20-year dry cycle. This means that after it reaches its spill level of 254,000 acre feet, average yearly usage of 21,000 acre feet will provide enough water for 20 years. Casitas spilled about four years ago, Johnson said, leaving at least a decade and a half of water supply for the valley and the city of Ventura. Currently the lake is at about 200,000 acre feet, Johnson said.
But wildfire concerns still come back around to new spring growth and moisture levels in plants.
Holder said cattle ranchers will likely have a tough time feeding their livestock on the mountain grasses this summer.
It's this continuing concern that keeps firefighting experts like Raley busy cutting fuel breaks around the valley. Soon, he and other county, state and federal fire officials will be burning brush piles near upper Foothill Road.
Under Raley's guidance, the California Youth Authority and other agencies have provided manpower to cut and maintain a fuel break that runs between Highway 33 and the Upper Ojai slightly north of the Shelf Road trail.
"It's great, kids are working and paying their debt to society and learning fire fighting skills," Raley said. "We work 'em all summer long. Hey, you gotta keep the lawn mowed. We're doing a pretty good job protecting Ojai and the Upper Ojai Valley."

Water use up for big customers
by Bret Bradigan

It's a double bind for big water users. They can expect to pay more as they use more.
Most of that expense comes from the higher electrical rates. As Jim Coultas, Casitas Municipal Water District director, said, "The water is free. The expense comes from moving it around."
Storage isn't the problem, Coultas said. Casitas Lake was designed to withstand seven or eight years of severe drought. The lake holds 200,000 acre-feet, within 80 percent of its capacity. They typically use about 20,000 acre-feet each year, with another 6,000 acre-feet lost to evaporation.
An acre-foot of water is about 325,000 gallons, and provides the needs of an average household for one year.
Casitas water rates aren't going up to compensate for the drought conditions. Coultas said the board made a wise decision years ago to peg rate hikes with cost of living increases - "rate leveling" he called it. That way, unusual circumstances don't require exorbitant rate hikes.
Unfortunately, while water prices remain steady, pumping charges drive up costs to growers. Tony Thacher with Friend's Ranch has been irrigating "all of 2002. It's never rained enough to do any good."
Coultas has his own rain-related expenses. On his farm, it costs $150 a day to irrigate his 160 acres. It costs him, with electrical bills for pumping and the cost of the metered water, anywhere from $500 to $8,500 a month to keep his citrus in marketable condition.
And it gets more expensive to pump that water as the dry conditions continue. "Wells are about 50 feet lower at this time of year than for the last five years," Coultas said, as the irrigation pumping draws down the Ojai Valley's aquifer.
Thacher said the county's agricultural commissioner used to claim that each inch of rain was worth $1 million to Ventura County growers. "I'm sure it's much higher than that now."
Technology has been a key ally for the famed Ojai Valley Inn & Spa Golf Course, said Public Relations Director Merrill Williams. Several years ago, they installed an "evapo-transpiration system," she said, with 15 sensors arranged around the 200-acre course "that monitor the evaporation of moisture from the turf, and replace the water where it needs to be replaced."
Even so, water prices have gone up, though just slightly, she said. And with plans to cancel the course's September overseeding tradition, which uses an extra 100,000 gallons of water, they should be on par with last year's water costs.
Water costs are only one of the issues affecting local farmers, though.
Citrus growers have been taking a beating lately at harvest, Thacher said. Ojai growers are now subject to fluctuations of the world market, and fewer and fewer are able to compete. For instance, San Joaquin Valley growers have distinct advantages in land prices, not to mention that the state of California guarantees delivery of their water at a third the cost.
"It's a cumulative thing," Thacher said, also mentioning Ojai's exorbitant land costs. "And water is definitely a part of it.
"It hurts because the last few years in the citrus business have been pretty awful," he said.

Water rationing unlikely
by Kelly Feser Eells

Reports of drought have left many local residents wondering what is on tap for them in the coming months, water-wise.
This time last year, rainfall for the valley was at 25 inches; today, it is barely one-third that. Is water at a premium? If so, can we expect premium prices for service?
Southern California Water Company, with nearly 3,000 area customers - with 90 percent of their water coming from four to six company-owned wells, "augmented by water purchased from the Casitas Municipal Water District" - was best poised to answer these questions.
Warren Morgan, Coastal Division manager for American States Water Company, of which SCWC is a subsidiary (see sidebar), oversees operations in Los Osos, Santa Maria, Simi Valley, and Ojai. Morgan noted that, while he wasn't employed with SCWC during the last, "official" drought in the early '90s, any declaration of drought and/or a call for water rationing has to go before the Public Utilities Commission first.
"And I don't see that happening," said Morgan. "Groundwater levels appear to be normal for this time of year."
Morgan also stated that, though "we purchase water from Casitas on occasion, anyway" the Ojai system's district manager, Frank Bennett, could provide a more detailed assessment of the valley's overall water situation. "But, again (significantly below-average rainfall totals), do not translate to higher bills at this time."
Bennett concurred. "All of our pumping comes from the groundwater basin. We don't see any problem right now. There's an ample supply for a couple of years."
Bennett went on to say that SCWC has never, since its 1927 inception, been in an emergency situation where it had to enforce water rationing or extract emergency drinking water from the Casitas basin. Using Casitas as a reserve, he added, means always "being prepared. We don't want to tax the system."
Ojai's slow-growth policies are a positive factor in times of drought, Bennett said, in that the "amount of (water) usage doesn't change" much. Another positive factor is the residents themselves. "First of all, every water company has its own program." In the early '90s, "We went out saying, 'conserve,' and Ojai did. It was entirely voluntary."
Though rate increases, Bennett concluded, do occur - on average, every three years - "they're associated with the costs of running the operation. The power companies," Edison, in Ojai's case, "have the most dramatic effect on water rates."

© 2002 The Ojai Valley News

Back to the news