The Iceberg Cometh : Drought: Towing a chunk of glacier into the harbor is the 5th of 8 water shortage solutions the council plans to look at in a $175,000 study.

Vowing to search for solutions to the water crisis no matter where the hunt may lead, Ventura city officials have decided to study the possibility of hauling icebergs from the polar caps and planting them off the county’s shores.

It’s a long shot, everyone concedes. And Mayor Richard Francis goes so far as to call it “an absurd waste of money.” But, long shot or not, the iceberg study has the official blessing of the Ventura City Council.

The idea of hauling icebergs from the frigid waters of Antarctica or the North Atlantic is an old one now being refloated only in the face of the chilling political realities: California’s four-year drought is dragging on and water supplies are dwindling.

The iceberg study is to be one focus of a $175,000 research project on possible long-term water supplies approved by the City Council Monday on a 5-2 vote.

According to City Engineer Ron Caulkins, getting an iceberg to Ventura would involve hiring a large oceangoing tug that would have to anchor into an iceberg somewhere thousands of miles from the county and then tow it slowly back to a local anchorage.

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