VENTURA : Ballot Bid on Buying Water Falls Short

The Assn. of Quality Water Alternatives has apparently failed to gather enough signatures in its bid to allow Ventura voters to decide whether to buy water from the State Water Project.

Association leader Robert McCord said Tuesday that his group had collected 5,597 signatures, about 1,500 signatures short of the number needed to be gathered through today. He would not comment on why the attempt failed.

The proposed ballot measure had the support of the Ventura Chamber of Commerce, the Ventura Board of Realtors, and most commercial and development interests in the city.

Ironically, the group’s setback follows a unanimous City Council vote Monday approving an environmental study on a 42-mile pipeline that would hook up the city with Lake Castaic, a State Water Project reservoir.

The study is precisely what the ballot initiative sought--to get the council to begin taking positive steps toward building the pipeline.

“I think the people have more faith in the council than those people out there making noise,” said Councilman Gary Tuttle, the only member to go on record opposing the pipeline. “They knew we were headed in the direction of studying the pipeline, and they decided to let us do our job.”