Lake Casitas

Casitas Municipal Water District  serves customers in the Casitas district.  This area includes Ventura’s westside and midtown, generally west of Mills Road. Ventura Water customers who live in the Casitas District pay an assessment annually through their property taxes. For more information, visit the Casitas' website at https://www.casitaswater.org/.

Ventura River

Ventura Water operates groundwater wells and a subsurface diversion that draw water from the Ventura River. 

On September 30, 2019, the City of San Buenaventura and Santa Barbara Channelkeeper entered into a settlement agreement in the lawsuit regarding the pumping and diversion of water from the Ventura River Watershed. As part of the settlement, the City agreed to begin a Pilot Program to reduce its pumping and diversion of water from the river when flows drop during dry times to help protect species that depend on the river. The City also agreed to install two monitoring gages (above and below its Foster Park facilities) to help better evaluate water levels in the river. VR1 is located upstream of the City’s wellfield and VR2 is located in Foster Park just below the subsurface dam. The gages were installed in early September 2019 and calibration was completed in December 2019.

The stream gages measure depth directly, and then based on flow and depth curves, provide flow data for each depth measured. Air is pumped from the equipment box through a conduit placed in the river bottom, and sensors measure the pressure required for an air bubble to come out of the pipe. The greater the water depth over the pipe, the more pressure is required. Following installation, a team took discharge measurements in the river, and correlated those flow measurements with water surface elevation. Multiple measurements over a range of flows were used to create a curve which depicts the relationship between flow and depth for the site.

• Data collected from the gages since installation can be viewed at: https://www.picovale.com/
• Go to the “Field Station Access”  button at the upper right side of the homepage and enter the following in the Users Login fields:
• Login: ventura
• Password: river

For more information on the Ventura River Watershed Adjudication visit: https://venturariver.com/ 

Groundwater Basins

In addition to wells located on the Ventura River, Ventura Water operates groundwater wells in three groundwater basins: the Oxnard Plain Basin, Mound Basin, and Santa Paula Basin. Our production is managed by existing agencies/agreements and future groundwater supply may be impacted by the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).  SGMA was passed by the State in 2014 to improve management of groundwater resources in California. The legislation requires that groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs) are established for groundwater basins ranked as medium- or high- priority, indicating that the basins are at risk of overdraft and/or a decline in water quality.  Once GSAs are formed, Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs) must be adopted and the groundwater basin must achieve sustainability by 2042. 

• The Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency is named as the GSA for the Oxnard Plain Basin (ranked as high-priority).
• The Mound Basin GSA (ranked medium-priority) meets the third Tuesday of each month. Additional information and meeting materials are available at moundbasingsa.org.
• The Santa Paula Basin is adjudicated and exempt from the GSA process.
• The Upper Ventura River Basin GSA (ranked medium-priority) meets the second Thursday of each month.  For more information visit uvrgroundwater.org.   
   

Source: 2015 Urban Water Management Plan 

Recycled Water

Ventura Water provides recycled water from the Ventura Water Reclamation Facility for golf courses, parks and similar landscape areas.  Recycled water is also available to commercial and residential customers through the Mobile Reuse Program.