The Conejo Valley, looking toward the mountains that capture the rain. The watershed that supplies our taps begins in these hills. Photo by the autz

An Open Letter to the Ventura County Board of Supervisors on Regional Water Security

The OPV Coalition case, the Calleguas system, and what unincorporated communities have at stake

By Marcelo Bermúdez  |  Lynn Ranch, Ventura County  |  May 26, 2026

The Honorable Jeff Gorell, Chair, District 2
The Honorable Members of the Ventura County Board of Supervisors

800 South Victoria Avenue, Ventura, CA 93009

Dear Supervisor Gorell and Members of the Board,

I am writing as a Lynn Ranch resident, a Ventura County Leadership Academy alumnus, and a property owner whose water security depends on decisions being made right now in courtrooms and council chambers across the county. I want to acknowledge upfront the substantial work the County is already doing on these questions — and to ask that the Board use its public platform to make that work visible to residents, particularly those of us in unincorporated communities who depend entirely on the County for representation.

Three groundwater rights cases involving the Pleasant Valley, Oxnard Plain, Las Posas, and Cuyama basins are pending or moving through the California courts. The County is already a defendant through Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency in OPV Coalition v. Fox Canyon,² a case now awaiting a California Supreme Court decision on whether to grant review of an October 2025 ruling that could force the City of Camarillo to scale back operations at its $70 million North Pleasant Valley Groundwater Desalter.³ The County is also a lead member of the Watersheds Coalition of Ventura County⁴ and oversees the Calleguas Creek watershed through the Watershed Protection District. The institutional involvement is deep. The public communication is thinner than the moment warrants.

The original reporting that brought this to my attention is a piece by Gabrielle Ridgeway in The Camarillo Caller that lays out the case, the data, and the implications more clearly than anything I have seen in regional media.¹ I commend it to the Board and to staff.

For Lynn Ranch, Casa Conejo, Santa Rosa Valley, Hidden Valley, Lake Sherwood, Oak Park, and every other community in District 2 that draws from the Calleguas Municipal Water District system, a reduction in Camarillo’s local supply means more imported State Water Project water flowing through the same wholesale system that serves all of us. That translates into rate pressure on every Calleguas ratepayer,⁶ increased dependence on a Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta system that has lost two consecutive commercial salmon seasons and is vulnerable to catastrophic levee failure,⁵ and reduced regional resilience at exactly the moment cities across the county are approving significant new residential and commercial development.

What makes the October 2025 ruling especially difficult to reconcile is that Fox Canyon’s own most recent annual report shows the Pleasant Valley Basin recovering, with Spring 2025 groundwater elevations above minimum thresholds at seven of eight key wells and reported groundwater production below the estimated sustainable yield.⁷ The basin the court ruled was being over-drafted is, by the regulator’s own data, gaining water during a drought — in significant part because the Desalter is doing its job.

The unincorporated communities the County directly represents have the least ability to advocate for themselves in this fight. We do not have city councils. Our elected representation on water and land use questions is the Board of Supervisors. I am asking the Board to use that authority publicly and visibly.

Specifically, I am respectfully requesting the following:

One. That the Board, under your chairmanship, issue a public statement on the OPV Coalition case clarifying the County’s position as a defendant, the implications for ratepayers and unincorporated communities across the county, and the County’s view on the doctrinal questions before the California Supreme Court regarding non-native water and adjudicated basin management. Residents deserve to understand what their County is fighting for.

Two. That the Board direct the Watersheds Coalition of Ventura County and the County Executive Office to produce a public-facing regional water security briefing in advance of the July 1, 2026 Urban Water Management Plan updates. This would surface, for residents, a shared and honest accounting of regional supply, demand, and infrastructure investment needs across the Calleguas service area and the broader county.

Three. That the Board engage the City of Thousand Oaks on the question of whether the Hill Canyon Treatment Plant’s treated effluent, currently discharged to Arroyo Conejo, could be more fully deployed for non-potable reuse across both incorporated and unincorporated areas in the Conejo Valley, consistent with the recycled water expansion that neighboring jurisdictions including Camarillo, Oxnard, Simi Valley, and Las Virgenes have already implemented.

Four. That growth and development approvals across the county — both at the city level and in the unincorporated areas governed by the County General Plan and area plans, including the Thousand Oaks Area Plan that covers Lynn Ranch⁸ — be evaluated against realistic State Water Project delivery assumptions rather than paper Table A allocations that have not matched actual deliveries in over a decade.

None of these requests are anti-growth. None of them are anti-housing. The state has made clear, correctly, that California’s housing crisis demands real solutions and that water adequacy cannot be used as a pretext for exclusion. But honest water accounting is not exclusion. It is the foundation of every other infrastructure decision the county makes, and it is the responsibility of elected leadership to ensure that foundation is sound and that residents understand it.⁹

Supervisor Gorell, your chairmanship of the Board this year places you in the right position to elevate this conversation publicly. The institutional work is already happening. What is missing is the public leadership that helps residents understand what is at stake, what the County is doing, and where they can engage. Ventura County Leadership Academy alumni, property owners across District 2, and stakeholders throughout the county are ready to support that conversation.

I am happy to discuss any of the above in more depth, and I welcome the opportunity to work alongside the Board, fellow VCLA alumni, and other community stakeholders toward solutions that protect both our existing residents and our shared future.