80% of Ventura Water Users Meet Rationing Goals

More than 80% of Ventura’s water customers are complying with the city’s water conservation ordinance, city statistics show.

The figures correspond to the first 3,000 or so bills mailed since the penalty phase of the ordinance went into effect July 12, city Department of Public Works spokeswoman Carol Green said.

The bills were mailed Monday, Green said.

Among institutional customers, Holy Cross School, Ventura Missionary Baptist Church, Church of Latter-day Saints, Free Pentecostal Church and Fundamental Baptist Church were penalized for violating the ordinance, Green said.

The list of commercial and residential violators was not available Friday nor was the amount by which the institutions had exceeded their allocations.

The total penalties assessed against the 501 customers who violated the ordinance were $90,523.16, Green said.

Under the ordinance, the penalty money will be reimbursed if, by the end of the year, the violators have saved enough water to make up for their excess use. The penalty money would then be credited to their accounts.

Customers are charged four times the normal rate for excess use, but if they violate the ordinance three times in a row, they will be charged 10 times the normal rate.

Penalties have been assessed so far on 373 residences, 122 commercial accounts, one school and five churches, for a total excess use of 14,139 hundred cubic feet or 10.6-million gallons. In Ventura, single-family residences are allowed 294 gallons a day.

Green said the city was pleased with the residents’ performance and noted that more than half of the violators exceeded their allocations by less than 7,480 gallons apiece.