Groundwater Adjudication and Water Rights (OPV Case)
Camarillo
Summary
The city is locked in a multi-year lawsuit over who gets to pump how much water from the Oxnard-Pleasant Valley basins. Phase 1 set the Pleasant Valley safe yield at 13,750 acre-feet per year — a number the city argued against and lost — and the Phase 2 trial on actual water rights is set for April 2028.
At a glance
- Total mentions
- 2
- Last 30 days
- 1
Discussed at 1 meeting in the last 60 days; most recently Oct 14, 2026.
Impact analysis
Prolonged litigation costs and potentially reduced groundwater pumping rights could affect water rates and supply reliability for years.
Residents benefit if the city secures pumping rights, especially through its desalter claim that turns salty water into drinking water.
Agricultural landowners opposing city claims face pumping limits, and residents could see cost pressures if the city's rights are curtailed.
Mentions & discussions (3)
Camarillo City Council and Sanitary District - Oct 14, 2026
The city is locked in a multi-year lawsuit over who gets to pump how much water from the Oxnard-Pleasant Valley basins. Phase 1 set the Pleasant Valley safe yield at 13,750 acre-feet per year — a number the city argued against and lost — and the Phase 2 trial on actual water rights is set for April 2028.
Supremes shoot down city’s mid-case water-rights gambitruling
Supremes shoot down city’s mid-case water-rights gambitruling Camarillo Acorn
Camarillo City Council and Sanitary District - Mar 11, 2026
City leaders received a detailed legal briefing on an ongoing multi-party groundwater lawsuit over the Oxnard and Pleasant Valley basins. Camarillo is appealing a court decision that set low safe yields and treated upstream imported water as native water, which could impact the city's heavy investment in its groundwater desalter plant.
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