State Proposes Sewers for Rural Homesites : Water: Officials call for requirements in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, but critics fear overdevelopment.

State water quality officials on Monday recommended sweeping regulations that would require developers to build sewers in new developments in rural communities in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, a proposal that critics predicted would lead to overdevelopment of areas struggling to retain their country character.

The recommendations, if adopted, would apply to fast-growing areas that obtain their drinking water from local wells, such as Acton, Agua Dulce and Lake Hughes in Los Angeles County and the Santa Rosa Valley in Ventura County. The California Regional Water Quality Control Board for the Los Angeles region has jurisdiction over the two counties.

The proposed recommendations would restrict the use of septic tanks, which control board officials said can cause ground water to be contaminated with nitrates occurring in sewage effluent.

Nitrates from sewage do not harm adults but can produce the “blue-baby syndrome” in infants, a sometimes fatal condition thatimpairs the blood’s capacity to carry oxygen, said Robert P. Ghirelli, the board’s executive director.

Developers could comply with the proposed regulations by either building a self-contained sewage treatment system or by tying in to an existing system.

While residents complained that the sewers would promote growth, developers contended that the new regulations would add as much as $25,000 to the cost of a new home.

“It’s an extremely controversial issue,” Ghirelli said. “We have developers on one side thinking we’re going too far and the community on the other side thinking we’re overreacting--then public agencies saying we’re not doing enough to protect the public health.”

The recommendations, presented to the control board Monday, would ban septic tanks for use on lots under 2 acres.

Septic tanks could be used on lots between 2 and 5 acres, but sewer pipes that could later be made functional would have to be installed. That requirement is based on the assumption that the sewer might have to be activated some day, said Anne Saffel, an environmental specialist with the control board.

Installation of sewers on lots larger than 5 acres would not be required, except when nitrate contamination is found, Saffel said. Current residents would not be subject to the sewer requirements, she said.

A public hearing on the recommendations is scheduled April 23.

Members of the Acton Town Council, representing the town of 8,000 residents halfway between Santa Clarita and Palmdale, said the installation of sewers would allow unbridled development in the unincorporated community. Joel Levy, council president, also said that planning studies by Los Angeles County have said that as many as 24,000 Acton residents could safely rely on septic tanks.

The recommendations were prompted in part by the discovery of high nitrate levels in wells in Agua Dulce in the mid-1980s. Some wells had nitrate levels of 190 parts per million, far above the state safety guideline of 45 parts per million, Saffel said. The average well in Agua Dulce had 30 parts per million.

Agua Dulce residents, however, say that those findings are inflated and that nitrates are not a problem in their wells.