Panel to Discuss Ban on Some Water Softeners

Concerned about the levels of salt in one of the region’s last wild rivers, a Santa Clarita Valley waste water board today will consider banning the installation of certain salt-discharging home water softeners.

The ban will be considered by the local board of the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts at 3 p.m. at Santa Clarita City Hall.

The popular “self-regenerating” water softeners dump their salty discharge into the sewer system, which spills into the Santa Clara River.

Farmers downstream in Ventura County are concerned that the salts are destroying their avocado crops, and the Regional Water Quality Control Board has mandated that the river contain less than 100 milligrams per liter of salty chlorides, roughly half its current load.

At the same time, Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts officials hope to convince the water quality board to raise the salt limit. They say it is unachievable without constructing a $400-million system that would use reverse osmosis to remove the salts and transport them to the Pacific Ocean via an expensive pipeline.

The cost of constructing such a system would fall on Santa Clarita Valley water users, who could see their rates rise as high as $600 per year, said Paul Martyn of the sanitation district.