Water Agency Allowed to Buy Center for Plant

Despite objections from the city of Los Angeles, the Castaic Lake Water Agency has been awarded the right to buy the city-owned Saugus Rehabilitation Center for a water treatment plant.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge granted the water agency’s request to obtain the 580-acre parcel late last month, agency General Manager Robert C. Sagehorn said Thursday. Located inside Santa Clarita, the parcel was the site of a defunct alcohol rehabilitation center.

Sagehorn said he has deposited in an escrow account $15.8 million to obtain the property. Once appraisers for the city of Los Angeles assess the property’s value, negotiators will meet to decide the final price, Sagehorn said. The city had resisted selling the property.

The Castaic Lake agency, which provides state water to the Santa Clarita Valley’s four local purveyors, will begin building a $48-million treatment plant on the land this fall, Sagehorn said. The plant, which will initially treat about 30 million gallons of water a day, is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 1993.

The plant will be funded by connection fees on new development, Sagehorn said.

Although the capacity of the existing Earl Schmidt Water Treatment Facility at Castaic Lake could be doubled to meet some future needs, Sagehorn said the new plant will be necessary eventually. The agency wants to build the new plant before the surrounding area is developed to avoid tearing up busy streets, he said.