Water Agency Race Focuses on Growth Issue

It’s hardly a clash of political titans. But if you ask the candidates, the Castaic Lake Water Agency board election has titanic consequences, with the fate of the county’s largest-ever proposed development possibly hinging on the results.

The agency is a wholesale water provider for four water purveyors in the Santa Clarita Valley and a small portion of Ventura County. The water agency is guided by an 11-member board of directors, which includes four appointed and seven elected members.

The campaign to fill four of the seven elected seats on the agency board is focused largely on the same issue echoed by other political races in this part of Los Angeles County: growth.

At stake in the Castaic race is whether the agency will buy the rights to 41,000 acre-feet of water from a Kern County water district source for an estimated $41 million, much of which would come from an agency reserve fund.

That water would provide for Santa Clarita Valley’s future growth, possibly including the planned 22,000-home Newhall Ranch project, scheduled for consideration by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors next month.

The proposed water purchase has divided candidates into two major factions, with a couple of independent candidates also weighing in.

The three incumbents running for reelection, plus another candidate they endorse, support purchase of the 41,000 acre-feet--more than 13 billion gallons. Even if Newhall Ranch never gets built, the additional water will be needed to supply local development projects already approved, they say.

“I think the major issue right now is an inadequate water supply,” said at-large district incumbent Richard Balcerzak, 61, a retired Municipal Water District manager. “The land-use planning already in place shows that we don’t have enough water, even without Newhall Ranch.”

Other incumbent candidates are Randall Pfiester, 47, a research scientist for a defense contractor, in Division 1, which includes Canyon Country and parts of Saugus; and Donald Froelich, 57, manager of the Glendale Water Department, in Division 3, which includes Castaic, Stevenson Ranch and parts of Saugus and Valencia along with a sliver of Ventura County.

In Division 2, which includes Newhall and parts of Valencia, Richard Green will step down. Green and the other three incumbents have endorsed Peter Kavounas, a Department of Water and Power manager.

Opposing the incumbents is a group of four candidates who contend that it’s unfair to taxpayers to use agency funds to support developers. They say the water purchase would just be a subsidy for the Newhall Land & Farming Co.

And ultimately it benefits Newhall Land and its Newhall Ranch project, said Cam Noltemeyer, 59, a pension firm trust accountant, who is running for the at-large seat. It’s the people who pay the water bills whose wallets will be lightened, she said. “We already have an excess of water for what we need, so Newhall Ranch should really be paying for the 41,000 acre-feet.”

The group of challengers say if taxpayer money is going to be used for the purchase, then a public referendum should be held.

Campaigning with Noltemeyer in Division 1 is Ed Dunn, the former president of the Newhall County Water District; in Division 2, Lynne Plambeck, 48, a former Newhall County Water District board member and a member of Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment (SCOPE), and in Division 3, Mike Kotch, 48, SCOPE president and appointed member on the Castaic Lake Water Agency.

Also throwing their hats into the ring are independent candidates Brian Roney and Bob Lathrop.

Roney, 38, an office manager for Castaic Boat and Marine, joined the race because of what he called the “fiscal irresponsibility” of current board members. “They’re just depleting our reserve funds for projects that haven’t been approved,” he said.

Lathrop, 83, a retired mechanical engineer at Lockheed, said he joined the race to keep the water agency from becoming an arm of Newhall Land.

“The purchase of the 41,000 acre-feet is all right, if Newhall Land & Farming pays for it, but I don’t think tax money should be paid for their projects,” Lathrop said.

Carol Maglione, a spokeswoman for Newhall Land, responded by saying the firm has not endorsed any candidate and that it considers the water purchase and approval of Newhall Ranch as separate issues.