OXNARD : State Funds Could Pay for Safe Water

The 10,000 to 15,000 low- and middle-income residents of the El Rio and Nyeland Acres areas could get state help to pay for new safe water supplies, a state health official said Thursday.

A state grant of up to $400,000 could save the residents the estimated $2,000 per household needed to solve the area’s nitrate contamination problem, said Daniel Carrigan, the state Department of Health Services worker who arranges for state funding.

The 20 small water districts serving the area must join together and form a public agency with an elected board of directors to qualify for the funds, Carrigan told district representatives meeting in El Rio on Thursday.

But there are no guarantees, Carrigan said.

“They have a better-than-average chance of being funded,� Carrigan said of the districts. “But we only have $20 million left in the 1988 bond-law money and we have $900 million in requests for funding.�

The districts could also be eligible for $5 million in loans from the state.

Nitrates are found in human and animal waste. They leach into ground water from back-yard septic tanks and agricultural field runoff.

Assemblyman Jack O’Connell (D-Carpinteria) has proposed a law to make $75 million available to correct drinking-water problems. If approved by the Legislature, it would become a bond initiative on the November ballot.

Representatives of the districts made no decisions Thursday, but county officials pressed them to act quickly.

Nitrate contamination, which has already forced health officials to close wells in seven of the districts, could hit the remaining wells any time, said Robert Quinn, manager of the water resources division of the County Public Works Agency.

The seven affected districts now receive emergency supplies from the city of Oxnard and the United Water Conservation District. Wells in the other districts contain nitrates but at levels low enough to meet state health standards, he said.

“The whole area has a problem with nitrates,� Quinn said. “They need to recognize that it’s going to happen to their wells sooner or later and that they need to look for a regional solution.�

The county recommends that the districts consolidate and join either the United Water Conservation District or the city of Oxnard. The cost per connection is about $2,000, whether the districts join a larger agency, dig new wells into deeper water supplies or blend their well water with other water, Quinn said.

James Burke, a member of the board of directors of the Vineyard Avenue Estates Mutual Water District, said a consensus among the groups may be impossible.