The Board’s budget discussions make clear that Crestview needs one emergency generator to comply with the new legal requirement for a backup source of water for wells idled by power failure in a wildfire emergency, but compliance will not require a new well.
New General Manager Gil Borboa and Superintendent Durrell McAdoo confirmed in the December 16 Board meeting that buying (or renting) a generator for Booster Pump 2 is the only capital spending for which Crestview must budget to meet the presently-defined wildfire mitigation requirements of AB367 (Bennett) enacted October 13, 2025. McAdoo added that an alternative would be to put a generator at Well #4 which discharges directly into (upper) Reservoir 3, from which it can supply the whole system, including Reservoir 2, by gravity.
For context, the pump motor at Well #4 is 250 HP, and the motor for Booster 2 is 40 HP, 75 HP, or 100 HP (depending on which Crestview source document is correct). So, a generator at Booster 2 would clearly be the lower cost alternative.
When Crestview lost power at both wells during the Mountain Fire, it switched from pumping groundwater to receiving imported water from Calleguas and renting a generator for Booster 2 to move water from Reservoir 2, where it arrives by gravity, up to Reservoir 3. Calleguas can supply water fast enough to supply the entire Crestview system even in the driest, hottest part of the year. In fact, Calleguas does supply the entire Crestview system for a few months almost every year because of limits on groundwater pumping rights.
In 2026, the Ventura County Fire Department will define what, if anything, Crestview and other water suppliers must do to protect their infrastructures from wildfires. In the case of Crestview, such requirements might include modifications to reservoir roofs and enhanced fire protection for equipment, pump houses, and other structures. Such measures could have capital spending implications, but the Board decided not to include these undefined needs in the 2026 Budget.
Although only one generator is required by AB 367, the Board and Staff are still considering what additional capital projects are prudent to meet more conservative fire-protection standards, to replace aging infrastructure, to facilitate exchanges of water with Calleguas and othes, and otherwise to provide Shareholders a dependable supply of good quality water at a competitive cost over the long term–all in an environment of shrinking consumption and shrinking groundwater pumping rights. GM Borboa plans to submit to the Board in January a list of capital projects to be considered, along with rate increase implications.
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