Environmentalists File Lawsuit to Block ‘Water Banking’ Plan

Claiming that a new “water banking” system violates state law, environmentalists have sued to halt a Santa Clarita Valley water agency’s 10-year storage program that they fear will fuel more development in the fast-growing region and harm the Santa Clara River.

Oakland-based California Water Network and the local Friends of the Santa Clara River filed the lawsuit in Ventura County Superior Court on Monday, saying the Castaic Lake Water Agency failed to conduct a full environmental review for its plan to store imported state water at a site in Kern County.

The agency sells water from the California Aqueduct to local users to help supplement their water supplies.

The plaintiffs contend that a thorough review is necessary to assess the impact that future development would have on the river, which courses through Los Angeles and Ventura counties. They believe the water agency is overstating the amount of state water that would be available to the Santa Clarita Valley in coming years.

They also charge that the transfer and storage program gives a false impression that enough water is available to sustain future growth.

“The storage of this water would be used to support a plan that under-projects the growth that can be expected, and overestimates the amount of water provided,” said Stephan Volker, an attorney for the California Water Network. “It’s a sharp conflict: There’s too much growth and not enough water.”

But water officials say the stored water would only be sufficient to accommodate existing homes because of the limited 10-year program. They say the plan was approved in October as an “insurance policy” against dry years, when the state may curtail the full amount of aqueduct water the region is allowed.

Under the agreement, the Castaic Lake Water Agency would direct the transfer of 24,000 acre-feet of its unused allotment of state water from the aqueduct to ground water storage facilities in Kern County. An acre-foot is 326,000 gallons, enough water to supply two average-size families for a year.

The agency currently provides water directly or through other agencies to more than 3,000 customers in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

Mary Lou Cotton, a spokeswoman for the agency, said environmentalists are using the water storage issue to try to scare homeowners into supporting anti-growth positions. She said their actions could lead to a future water shortage.

“If we don’t get this water stored and there’s a dry year next year, we might have to employ water conservation on the people who live here now,” Cotton said.

Environmentalists have been fighting for years to stop or curb a number of large-scale developments in the Santa Clarita Valley, including the 21,600-home Newhall Ranch project.

A judge has temporarily blocked that project until the developer can prove it has sufficient water supplies to support the project during drought years.

Activists fear that if there isn’t enough state water for the new homes during a statewide drought, local officials will be tempted to overuse surface and ground water resources from the Santa Clara River, thereby harming wildlife, the environment and the local agricultural industry.

Friends of the Santa Clara River plan to stage a rally in Santa Clarita on Saturday to protest the water storage plan.