About

Ventura needs more water. A decade of comprehensive evaluations, studies, and piloting have allowed local leaders to consider many forward-thinking solutions to ensure Ventura’s continued water supply. Ultimately, this work led to the VenturaWaterPure Program.   

VenturaWaterPure will recover, treat and reuse water that is currently discharged into the Santa Clara River Estuary, creating a locally-owned, drought-resilient water source that isn’t dependent on rainfall.

  1. Why VenturaWaterPure
  2. How VenturaWaterPure works
  3. Community benefits
  4. Program timeline

Ventura is one of the largest cities in Southern California to rely solely on local water supplies. Rainfall feeds the Ventura River, Lake Casitas and groundwater basins to meet all community needs. But prolonged drought, increased regulations, and operational and legal challenges have impacted Ventura’s local water supply. 

If customers do not continue conserving at current levels and drought conditions continue, Ventura’s water demand could outpace its supplies before 2030 without additional supplies.

Demonstration Facility

The City will be piloting a small-scale demonstration facility that will mimic the treatment process that VenturaWaterPure’s Advanced Water Purification Facility will eventually utilize. The demonstration facility will achieve water quality standards, conforming with the State Division of Drinking Water’s strict regulations under Title 22 of the CA regulations for Indirect Potable Reuse. 

The City looks forward to opening the demonstration facility to the public for tours and water tastings during summer 2022, COVID-permitting.  

This demonstration facility will be similar to the successful demonstration facility that Ventura Water operated in 2015 and 2016.  

Earlier Demonstration Facility 

The 2015-2016 demonstration facility successfully hosted a mix of community members, school groups, City staff, Council members, water reuse professionals, and water agencies from across California—all sharing a common interest in efforts to pilot and implement potable reuse projects to improve the sustainability of vital water resources across California. 

The 2015-2016 demonstration facility provided an excellent resource for these stakeholders to learn more about VenturaWaterPure and advanced treatment technologies.