Water Agency Sues City Over Road, Flood Plan

Contending that they simply want to protect the region’s ground-water supply, the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency filed a lawsuit Monday against the city of Palmdale.

The suit stems from the city’s plans for a massive flood-control and road-widening project that would allow the development of thousands of homes, including the 7,200-home Ritter Ranch, in west Palmdale.

“We have no ulterior motive in this; we’re not trying to stop the project,” said Michael T. Riddell, a Riverside attorney representing AVEK. “Our sole concern is to ensure no adverse impact on ground-water recharge, which I’m sure the city of Palmdale is interested in protecting.”

Agency officials are concerned that, if not designed properly, the flood control portion of the project would hamper the natural percolation of the Amargosa Creek into the ground-water basin, which the lawsuit describes as “the principal source of water for the Antelope Valley.” The agency sells water at wholesale to Antelope Valley water purveyors for domestic, industrial and agricultural use.

“The problem is that they (the city) haven’t yet designed the flood control improvements and therefore it’s very difficult to determine what those impacts are going to be on ground-water recharge,” Riddell said. “We need to feel confident the improvements they do design will not have an adverse impact on ground-water recharge.”

Representatives from the agency and the city met several times over the past month to try to work out an agreement that would make the suit unnecessary.

In a final effort, the Palmdale City Council last week unanimously approved a resolution vowing its “intent to protect the quantity and quality of recharge water from the Amargosa Creek. . .”

Agency General Manager Wallace Spinarski said he is not sure that the resolution is enough to ensure that his agency’s concerns are met as the city determines the final design of the flood control project.

By filing the lawsuit, the agency maintains its right to challenge the final plans for the project, Spinarski said.

“We’d like to reach some settlement on the issues, but in a form that gives us sufficient guarantees against action by future City Councils,” he said. “That probably hasn’t happened in the form of a resolution.”