Santa Clarita Valley Water Needs Can Be Met, Agency Says

A state agency has proposed steps that it says will provide enough water to serve the tens of thousands of new residents expected to flood into the Santa Clarita Valley over the next 20 years.

Those measures include new underground reservoirs and increased use of recycled water, according to the report by the Castaic Lake Water Agency, which supplies water to four utilities that serve the fast-growing region of north Los Angeles County.

“In short,” the report concludes, “water supplies are expected to be adequate throughout the 20-year plan period under all conditions,” even droughts, if the proposals are implemented.

Critics, however, said the report reflected a pro-growth bent, and was being rushed through the approval process.

Bill Pesci, an elected director of the water agency, denied that the agency has a pro-growth slant. “We don’t approve growth. We’re just like the gas company and the phone company. We are there to serve,” Pesci said.

In the complex study of development trends and projections, the agency estimates that the number of water users in the Santa Clarita Valley will nearly double by 2020, resulting in a 50% increase in the demand for water. There would be an increase in the number of households from nearly 50,000 now to 96,000 in 2020.

The agency’s estimate is more conservative than that of a recent study by the Southern California Assn. of Governments, which said it expects the area’s number of households to triple in the same period. Under that projection, more than 500,000 people will live in 149,214 households in the Santa Clarita Valley in 20 years. The association says the current population of the area is 226,346.

The water agency proposes greater use of local ground water and state water resources to meet the needs of future developments, such as the massive 21,600-unit Newhall Ranch, the largest ever approved in Los Angeles County.

In June, a Kern County Superior Court judge temporarily blocked construction of Newhall Ranch until the developer, Newhall Land & Farming Co., conducts further studies to guarantee that it has a reliable water supply. The Castaic Lake agency supports Newhall Land in the legal battle.

In a separate action, the state Public Utilities Commission in October ordered the Valencia Water Co., a subsidiary of Newhall Land, to prove it can guarantee water supplies to new developments.

Lynne Plambeck, a board member of the publicly owned Newhall County Water District and a critic of expansive development, said she was disappointed by the water agency’s plan, asserting that the report grossly underestimates water demands. She accused the agency of using unsubstantiated data to boost water supply estimates.

“They basically said, ‘Wow, if we are going to do all this development, we do need a certain amount of water, so we’ll just pull these figures out of the air,’ ” Plambeck said.

Some community leaders, including Henry Schultz, head of the Sierra Club in the Santa Clarita Valley, accused the water agency of rushing through the plan, which is required by state law to ensure that all agencies can meet existing and future water demands.

The lengthy report, compiled by a team of consultants, was released late the night before Thanksgiving and could be adopted after one hearing in December.

Mary Lou Cotton, a spokeswoman for the Castaic Lake Water Agency, defended the schedule, saying that the agency is required to adopt a plan by the end of the year. However, she said, the plan can be amended later.

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Population Growth

The number of households in the Santa Clarita Valley will nearly double by 2020, according to the Castaic Lake Water Agency.

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Source: Castaic Lake Water Agency, Urban Water Management Plan 200