Builder Sues Water District

Fearing that its planned 3,900-home subdivision will be denied water hookups, a developer has sued a Santa Clarita Valley agency that recently adopted new, conservative estimates of the water available for suburban growth.

The suit, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court by Woodland Hills-based SunCal Cos., contends that Newhall County Water District will use its new figures “as the basis to frustrate, delay or deny water service” to Northlake, a community planned on the west side of Castaic Lake.

Under state law, the water district is responsible for assessing whether building projects in its service area will have sufficient water. So far, SunCal has not formally asked the district to assess the water supply for its project, said Lynne Plambeck, president of the water district board.

The suit is the first legal challenge to the tiny water district’s policy shift -- one that has developers and the nearby city of Santa Clarita worried about the prospects for numerous upcoming building projects.

It is also the latest battle in a war that pits builders against local environmentalists, who worry that housing in the booming suburbs of north Los Angeles County is outstripping water supplies.

This particular controversy began in January, when a new slow-growth majority on the water district’s five-member board of directors rejected a state-mandated document that estimated water supply in the region.

Led by Plambeck, a longtime environmental activist, the new majority asserted that the document erroneously included polluted well water in its figures and overstated the amount of “imported” water available from the California Aqueduct.

The original plan estimated that the area had a yearly supply of 103,200 to 180,900 acre-feet of water available. (An acre-foot is 326,000 gallons, about enough to serve two families for a year.)

The water district board now says the average amount of water per year is closer to 72,205 acre-feet.

SunCal’s lawsuit argues that the district did not follow state rules for amending water plans. It also maintains that the district lacks evidence to support its figures. The company has asked the court to order the district to abandon the new water estimates.

SunCal representatives declined to comment on the lawsuit Tuesday.

Plambeck said the district’s new water numbers were based on other valid, preexisting water reports.

She said she recently met with a SunCal consultant and told him the company might have to build the project in phases, giving the district more time to clean up polluted wells.

“What it seems like they’re trying to do is file a lawsuit to get us to say there will be water ... when in fact there is not,” she said.