Newhall Analysis Cites Concerns

The developer of the 21,600-home Newhall Ranch subdivision has failed to report the amount of pollution the project could dump into the fragile Santa Clara River, one of Southern California’s last natural waterways, according to an analysis by the state’s main water-monitoring agency that The Times obtained Thursday.

The most recent environmental report for the proposed development did not adequately analyze the possible increase in chlorides, which may harm Ventura County agriculture downstream, and nitrates, which can cause a number of health problems, according to comments submitted to Los Angeles County earlier this month by the California Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Both compounds already exist in the watershed in quantities that are disturbing to water board officials, although they pose no immediate health hazards to humans, spokesman Sam Unger said. But unless developer Newhall Land & Farming Co. comes up with some solutions, its subdivision “will potentially add additional pollutants that will preclude attainment of water-quality objectives,” the analysis states.

Newhall spokeswoman Marlee Lauffer disagreed Thursday. She promised that the project would not harm the Santa Clara, which meanders through the heart of the development site in northwest Los Angeles County, and is home to a number of threatened and endangered species. “We’ll comply with all of the regulations,” she said.

The Newhall Ranch project, which was approved by Los Angeles County supervisors in 1999, has been delayed by a Ventura County lawsuit that has forced the developer to rewrite parts of its environmental report, including on water-supply issues.

More recently, controversy has swirled around the development amid accusations from state investigators that Newhall destroyed an endangered plant on the property, the San Fernando Valley spineflower. Newhall denied any wrongdoing and reached a settlement with the district attorney’s office over the issue earlier this month.

Ventura County farmers, meanwhile, have been more concerned about their $67-million avocado industry. Ventura officials say the crops are especially susceptible to high chloride levels, the result of booming development along the Santa Clara. In some stretches of the river, chloride levels are nearly twice as high as the levels set by the water board, Unger said.

A major source of chlorides is home water softeners, which dump salty discharge into the sewers that then spill into the river. This week, in an attempt to avoid a costly cleanup, a local wastewater board banned the installation of certain water softeners in the Santa Clarita Valley.

That ban would apply to Newhall Ranch, and Unger said it would help. But he said Newhall still needs to analyze the addition of chlorides from other sources, including the salts in the water that Newhall plans to import from other counties.

Ventura County water resources manager Lowell Preston said he would also like to see more analysis. “I’m not in favor of Newhall or against it,” he said. “I just want them to do their due diligence.”

Los Angeles County supervisors are set to consider approval of the new environmental report on March 25.