Rate Hike OKd for Casitas Water Users

The nearly 3,000 residential customers of the Casitas Municipal Water District will see a small rate increase beginning Saturday.

The district’s board of directors approved the 1.3% rate hike for residential customers at a meeting Wednesday. Agricultural users were hit with a 13.6% increase, which the board said was part of its policy of bringing rates in line with the cost of providing services.

The board also approved a plan to order 1.63 billion gallons of state water, with hopes of selling the water to another agency or city.

Starting in 1996, Casitas’ customers in Ojai and western Ventura County will see an additional 3% rate hike, which, along with $5 million in bond revenue and another $5 million in federal Safe Drinking Water Loans, will pay for the construction of a new pressure filtration plant.

Casitas water, currently treated with chlorine, requires additional treatment or filtration to comply with the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, officials said. The pressure filtration plant was a lower-cost alternative to a more elaborate chemical treatment process, officials said.

Casitas General Manager John Johnson said the sale of the state water would offset at least a portion of the $400,000 a year that Casitas pays to maintain its entitlement to the water, which flows through the state’s central aqueduct.

Casitas plans to lease its water along with the city of Ventura, which, like Casitas, owns rights to state water it can not acquire because it lacks a physical connection to the aqueduct.