Watersheds Coalition of Ventura County
The Watersheds Coalition of Ventura County is the California Department of Water Resources designated planning region for the State’s Integrated Regional Water Management program in Ventura County. With the State’s transition to watershed resilience and watershed networks, the WCVC will continue to foster regional cooperation. The coalition includes the Ventura River Watershed, the Lower Santa Clara River Watershed, and the Calleguas Creek Watershed.
Ventura County has a long history of integrated, multi-benefit resource planning. Watershed planning was a foundation of the County of Ventura’s flood control district founded in 1944. The Calleguas Creek Watershed Management Plan was initiated in 1996 with a comprehensive report published in 2004. In 2006, these various efforts and others throughout the County joined together to form the Watersheds Coalition of Ventura County (WCVC). The WCVC has successfully completed multiple iterations of Integrated Resource Water Management (IRWM) Plans per the standards of the State Department of Water Resources. As part of the State IRWM implementation grants programs, WCVC has received over $94.3 million in grant funding through Propositions 50, 84, and 1.
On April 19, 2023, the WCVC Steering Committee designated the Calleguas Municipal Water District to act as fiscal agent to administer the balance of the WCVC funding as the County of Ventura ended its role as the administrative home for the IRWM program. The original MOU and associated inter-agency amended extensions to “Participate in the Watersheds Coalition of Ventura County’s Integrated Regional Water Management (IRWM) Planning Efforts” expired August 23, 2023. Existing IRWM contracts with the State of California are being administered by the County of Ventura and the Calleguas Municipal Water District with associated administrative costs being funded by the project proponents. With the final round of IRWM grant funded projects, the WCVC is reassessing its role in regional collaboration.
With the passage of Proposition 4 in November 2024, California voters approved $10 billion dollars for water, wildfire adaptation, climate resilience, and related projects. Funding must be appropriated through the legislature and is subsequently administered by state agencies under various programs. For the 2025-26 fiscal year, the legislature appropriated $3.47 billion of the Proposition 4 bond monies. The State Department of Water Resources intends to program funding consistent with Proposition 4 funding categories and statewide priorities discussed in Chapter 5 of the California Water Plan Update 2023. Chapter 5 describes an evolution from the earlier IRWM program to watershed resilience and watershed networks. The WCVC will evolve as well, seeking to match effective and inclusive regional cooperation with State priorities funded through Proposition 4 and other programs.
