Panel OKs Water Hearing About Newhall Ranch

Bowing to complaints from Ventura County officials and environmental groups, the state Public Utilities Commission has agreed to hold a hearing on whether sufficient supplies of water are available to serve the massive Newhall Ranch housing development.

County officials and environmentalists, including the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club, say that water supplies in the Santa Clarita basin are inadequate to meet the needs of the 22,000-home suburb planned just east of the Ventura County line along the Santa Clara River.

Rather than contest the need for the hearing, the Valencia Water Co., the wholly owned subsidiary of the developer of Newhall Ranch, accepted the commission’s order, vowing to prove what it says is a surplus water supply in the Santa Clarita Valley. The PUC hearing is set for late May in Los Angeles.

Ventura County Supervisor Kathy Long hailed the commission’s ruling, calling it proof that available water in the basin has not been adequately assessed.

“It’s another sign that our position is solid,” said Long, whose district includes the area neighboring the development site.

Complaints filed with the state agency are just one front in the battle being waged to halt the Newhall development, which would be home to nearly 70,000 people.

The county has also filed suit against Newhall Land & Farming Co., the project developer, and Los Angeles County for approving the project. Ventura County charges that the environmental impact report for the development was flawed, that adequate water sources were not identified and the 11,963-acre development site near Magic Mountain was illegally subdivided. The case will be heard next month in Kern County.

But Los Angeles County officials who supported the project said that the developer had satisfied all environmental requirements, including those related to water supplies.

Dave Vannatta, the planning deputy for Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, said that the water-availability issue “probably was the most-discussed aspect of the Newhall project” before the county approved the development last year.

After extensive fact-finding, the county concluded that there is sufficient water to meet the project’s needs, Vannatta said.

“There are adequate supplies for this project as well as for the rest of the Santa Clarita Valley, taking into account future growth,” Vannatta said. “The county is very comfortable in its finding that there are adequate supplies of water for the project and the rest of the [Santa Clarita] Valley,” he added.

The water-availability issue is arising now because “people have an agenda and they want to stop the project,” Vannatta said. “Some of the opponents are [using] water as a means of stymieing the project.”

On the water issue, Ventura County is concerned that pumping of ground water by Valencia Water Co. will affect the county’s ground-water supply, and damage agriculture in the Santa Clara River valley.

“That’s a $300-million industry,” said Ventura County Supervisor John Flynn. “This is a major water issue, and Newhall [Land & Farming Co.] has failed to recognize and respond to it.”

Valencia provides water to a number of existing housing developments in the Santa Clarita Valley. Its plans for other developments, including the Newhall project, are at issue in the commission’s hearing.

Valencia’s president, Robert DiPrimio, said his company did not contest the need for the hearing because, he said, he expects the commission will find that the company can tap sufficient supplies of water for future expansions in its service area.

“We’ve got plenty of water,” he said.

But Ventura County and the Sierra Club claim that Valencia is depending on water sources that other water companies and agencies use, and there is simply not enough water to go around.

“There are several straws in the same glass,” said assistant county counsel Antonette Cordero.

Marlee Lauffer, spokeswoman for the Newhall Land & Farming Co., insisted that the May hearing would not affect the project. The May hearing is on Valencia Water Co.’s water-management plan, she said, not Newhall Ranch’s water needs.

Moreover, water availability for Newhall Ranch is not an issue, Lauffer said.

“Newhall Ranch already has, through its environmental impact report, determined its sources of water,” Lauffer said. The sources are the company’s historic and legal rights to Castaic Creek overflows, reclaimed water from area residential use, and additional state water that will be purchased from the Castaic Lake Water Agency, she added.

“While opponents are trying to make water an issue, it’s simply not one,” Lauffer said. “It sounds like the opponents of Newhall Ranch are trying to stir something up.”

PUC spokeswoman Kyle DeVine said a proposed ruling on the water issue by an administrative law judge will go before the entire commission by the end of the year. A final decision will be issued shortly thereafter.

She said that utilities that fail to demonstrate adequate water supplies to the commission typically succeed in acquiring water from other sources, thereby gaining the necessary approvals.

Times staff writer Caitlin Liu contributed to this story.