A wet winter combined with a purchase of surplus NorCal water has increased Lake Piru’s water level up to five times compared to October of 2018.

United Water ’s Lake Piru rose 65 feet in 2019 alone, and is now 73 percent full. In comparison, the lake was only 15 percent full in October of 2018. According to United Water Conservation District water experts, this is five times the amount of water that was previously in the lake.

On top of the increased rainfall, the water levels were assisted by purchases of Article 21 water, which is surplus water from Northern California that is made available for sale by the Department of Water Resources.

“The 2019 storm combined with the District’s recent Article 21 purchases have allowed United Water to harvest a total of 62,700 acre-feet of water at United’s Lake Piru and Freeman Diversion facilities, which is enough to serve 438,700 people in Ventura County for a year,” said Mauricio Guardado, General Manager for United Water Conservation District.

Despite the recent rainfall, nearly three-quarters of Ventura County continues to be short on necessary water resources to fully recuperate from the drought, according to officials.

“While this is more rain and purchased water than we have seen in a long while, we would still need 117,000 acre-feet more water to be completely out of the drought,” he continued.

To increase water resources, over the last three weeks, United Water Conservation District has successfully purchased 15,000 acre-feet of Article 21 water from the State Water project.

This is the largest amount of water ever brought into the region from outside sources and is enough to serve 105,000 people in Ventura County for one year, according to officials.

United Water collects stormwater in Lake Piru and strategically releases it into the Santa Clara River to maximize groundwater recharge in the downstream aquifers, according to officials.

Ed. Note: This information was provided to KHTS by United Water Conservation District

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