Liquid Assets : Last Independent Water Agencies in Foothill Communities Cast About for Ways to Stay Afloat

Without enough water, crops shrivel, brush fires threaten, and boom towns go bust.

This wasn’t lost on speculators who developed the arid foothills of La Canada and La Crescenta earlier this century. To ensure a steady water supply, they assiduously drilled wells and schemed over water rights. By the 1920s, seven small water purveyors flourished.

Today, four remain. They deliver to 15,000 households and are unlikely to expand much farther, since there is little land suitable for building left in the foothills. But local water agencies say that rising costs, aging equipment and pollution of the local wells make staying afloat increasingly difficult. Some are turning to innovative financing and new technology for help.

For instance, Crescenta Valley County Water District, which has 8,000 customers and is the biggest local agency, plans to build a $2-million plant to extract nitrate pollutants from its well water. Crescenta Valley purchases 55% of its water from outside sources and blends it with local well water to lower levels of industrial chemicals and nitrates, a sewage byproduct, to meet government-imposed health limits.

Officials say the treatment facility, only the third such plant in the United States, will save money by allowing the district to pump 75% of its water needs from its own wells.

Snowpack 35% Below Normal

That could be especially important in the coming years if the snowpack in the Sierra remains low; this year it is at 35% of normal levels in some key watershed areas. Scarcities could lead to higher water prices and, in case of severe drought, water rationing.

Crescenta Valley’s reclamation facility will remove nitrates from water by treating it with a chemical resin that exchanges the nitrate ions for chloride ions. As the untreated water passes through the plant, the nitrate ions stick to the resin and the chloride dissolves into the water, said Ernie Kartinen, an engineer with Boyle Engineering Corp. Boyle developed the process and is designing the plant, which will be at Glenwood and Sycamore avenues in Montrose and will treat up to 3 million gallons of water a day, Kartinen added.

The plant will be financed by a low-interest state loan from the 1984 Clean Water Bond Act and will save $200,000 annually after building costs are recouped, said Robert K. Argenio, the district’s general manager. Construction is expected to begin after officials sign a contract with the City of Los Angeles to pump the nitrate-contaminated waste from the Montrose plant to Los Angeles’ Hyperion treatment facility in El Segundo. A Los Angeles Department of Public Works spokesman said he does not foresee problems with such a contract, and neither do Crescenta Valley officials.

Foothill water agencies are divided into three types. The smallest is the privately owned Mesa Crest Water Co. in La Canada Flintridge, which has 650 customers. Founded in 1956 by the Flynn family of La Canada Flintridge to supply a subdivision that family members built in the city’s northeast, Mesa Crest has no wells and buys all its water.

May Merge Operations

Flynn family members say the water company makes a small profit, but they hope to lower operating costs by acquiring another agency and merging operations. Barring that, the Flynns may put Mesa Crest up for sale, they say. If so, they will not be alone; privately owned water companies in California have dwindled from 500 to 260 since 1967, a state Public Utilities Commission spokesman said.

Public and mutual water agencies tend to do better. Their numbers have held steady since the 1960s at about 850, a spokesman for the California Department of Water Resources said.

The area’s mutually owned firm is Valley Water Co., which serves south La Canada Flintridge. Its 3,500 customers are shareholders and part owners. Valley Water was founded in 1910 and pumps 30% of its water from two wells in Pasadena’s Raymond Basin.

There are also two public, nonprofit water districts: Crescenta Valley and the La Canada Irrigation District.

Districts are governed by an elected board of directors whose members are paid up to $100 a meeting to set water rates and plan pipeline and pumping facilities. All four have staffs that handle engineering and administration. Crescenta Valley, the largest, has 27 employees.

La Canada Irrigation District, which supplies almost 3,000 households on the northeast side of town, was founded in 1924. It buys 90% of its water and pumps the rest from two wells in the Raymond Basin.

“We have no problems with nitrates. We’re very fortunate; for some reason our wells do not exceed the limits allowed by the state,” said Doug Caister, the general manager.

2 Contaminated Wells Closed

Crescenta Valley, on the other hand, has 10 wells in the more polluted Verdugo Basin, which encompasses the Glendale and Foothill areas. Two of those are closed because of nitrate contamination. Water pumped from the other eight is blended with imported water to bring levels of nitrates and industrial chemicals down to state and federal limits, district officials say. Pollutants are further reduced by treatment at two aeration towers.

Local purveyors buy their water from the Foothill Municipal Water District, a government agency that acts as an intermediary between the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) and small Foothill agencies. The MWD, the giant of Southland water agencies serving about 14 million people in six counties from Ventura to the Mexican border, was founded by a state act in 1928 to bring water from Northern California and the Sierra to lands from Ventura to the Mexican border. The Foothill Municipal Water District was formed in 1952 to import MWD water when exploding growth outstripped the capacity of local wells.

How did well water in the foothills get polluted? Experts blame nitrates, the unsavory legacy of septic tanks that provided waste disposal in La Crescenta until the early 1980s and are still used in most of La Canada Flintridge.

Over the years, liquid sewage from the tanks seeped through the sandy soil and into the groundwater. A chemical reaction converted ammonia in that waste to nitrates.

Sewers have long been anathema in the foothills because they cost millions to install. Residents voted them down three times at the polls, and only 5% of La Canada Flintridge has sewers today, city officials say.

Required to Hook Up

La Crescenta received sewers in 1982 when Crescenta Valley, which supplies water to La Crescenta and part of Montrose, installed them districtwide and required all households to hook up. A few stragglers who refused had their water restricted until they complied.

Argenio, a big fan of sewers, said they provide the only long-term solution. He called nitrate pollution from septic tanks “our No. 1 problem.”

Industrial contamination runs a close second.

Foothill wells register relatively low levels of suspected carcinogens when contrasted with those in the more industrial San Fernando Valley. Nevertheless, wells in the Verdugo basin, from which Crescenta Valley draws water, have been proposed as federal Superfund cleanup sites. Well-water testing has turned up traces of suspected carcinogens from industry, although in levels within state safety limits.

Districts test water for bacterial content, 48 organic chemicals commonly used in industry and sewage byproducts. Water agencies may draw their own samples, but testing is done at independent, state-certified labs.

The web of regulations and restrictions governing water companies has become increasingly tangled since the days when Foothill land barons simply drilled holes in the ground and prayed they would hit water.

Gusher Sparked Land Boom

Fifty such wells were drilled before La Canada founding father J. L. Lanterman struck a gusher in 1911, according to Valley Water, which has compiled a history of local water agencies. Lanterman’s strike sparked a land boom that soon doubled real estate values and replaced the area’s orchards and vineyards with homes.

Lanterman also acquired the rights to the Pickens Canyon watershed, just below Angeles National Forest. He formed a mutual company to distribute the water and transported it, using gravity flow and redwood flumes on trestles. His company later became the La Canada Irrigation District.

The foothill communities grew slowly until the late 1940s and early 1950s, when the area exploded with post-World War II development. As a result, “In the early 1950s, this area was running out of water,” Argenio said.

That prompted the formation of Crescenta Valley and Mesa Crest. As subdivisions went up, water pipes went in.

Water agencies say demand has not increased much since the boom times of the 1950s, and they do not expect it to rise in the future.

No Big Increases Seen

“The area’s been pretty well settled in for a very long time. There’s not much in the way of undeveloped parcels, and I don’t think we’re going to experience any tremendous population increases,” Argenio said.

Except for Mesa Crest, the survivors have adjudicated rights to pump water from wells in the Raymond and Verdugo basins. Those rights--and the amount of water that each agency can pump annually--were determined by a complicated set of lawsuits brought by the City of Los Angeles that dragged through California courts for 30 years.

Water costs in the foothills run higher than in many other Southland areas for several reasons. One is the area’s elevation, which makes it necessary for the agencies to pump water uphill, running up big electric bills that are passed on to consumers.

Second, many small suppliers find that their aging equipment requires expensive maintenance and replacement. At mega-agencies such as the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, those costs are spread among hundreds of thousands of customers. Small suppliers have a small--and captive--clientele.

“Generally, with larger agencies there are economies of scale,” said Bob Penny, a PUC spokesman.

Adds Pat Flynn of Mesa Crest: “It’s very difficult for small water companies to keep up. . . . I think eventually they will all be sold.”

Deal Fell Through

Last year, Mesa Crest almost was sold to the San Gabriel Water Co. But the deal evaporated because San Gabriel did not like the PUC restrictions on the sale. Today, Mesa Crest customers would like to convert the agency to a mutual company and run it themselves. There is also some talk of annexing Mesa Crest to the La Canada Irrigation District, which many agree would make operations more efficient.

City officials in La Canada Flintridge said many customers complain that Mesa Crest charges high prices and delivers poor service. With rates of $1.64 per 100 cubic feet of water, Mesa Crest customers say their bills approach $100 a month during summer.

(PUC officials say this is steep. Glendale, which has its own municipal water agency, charges 75 cents per 100 cubic feet. But some drought-stricken communities in Northern California pay $2.35 per 100 cubic feet, the PUC reports).

Flynn agrees that his water is expensive but says service is “exceptionally good.”

One benefit of having four water agencies is that they can borrow from each other in emergencies. When a brush fire ravaged La Canada Flintridge in 1984, firefighting efforts left a reservoir in the La Canada Irrigation District, usually 11 feet high, with a water level of less than two feet as the fire still raged. Tragedy was averted because Crescenta Valley pumped in extra water through connecting pipes.

“We’re not in competition,” Argenio said of the incident. “We help each other out.”

CRESCENTA VALLEY WATER PROJECT Years of septic tank use have polluted local well water (1) with high levels of nitrates--a byproduct of sewage. As a result, well water must now be blended with costly imported water to dilute the nitrates. To curb imports, the Crescenta Valley Water District plans to build a reclamation plant. Some well water will bypass (2) the plant, but most will be filtered through a chemical resin at this nitrate treatment facility (3) that extracts the nitrates. This water will then be blended with the untreated well water and some imported water in proportionate amounts to meet government safety standards. The water will then be pumped to the Encinal Reservoir in La Crescenta. From there it goes to 19 other reservoirs (5,6), then homes and businesses. Officials estimate the plant will reduce water purchases from 55% to 25% of total needs and save $200,000 a year. Crescenta Valley County Water District Rate: $1.28/100 cubic feet Service: 8,000 households Founded: 1950 Ownership: public Wells: 10; 8 in use Pumps 45% of water; buys 55% La Canada Irrigation District Rate: $1.13/100 cubic feet Service: 2,830 households Founded: 1924 Ownership: public Wells: 1; both in use Pumps 10% of water; buys 90% Mesa Crest Water Co. Rate: $1.64 /100 cubic feet Service: 650 households Founded: 1956 Ownership: private Wells: None: buys 100% of its water Valley Water Co. Rate: $.90 /100 cubic feet Service: 3,500 customers Founded: 1910 Ownership: mutual stockholders Wells: 4; all operating Pumps 30%; buys 70%