This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press on Friday, August 6,
2004.
By BOB WILSON
Valley Press Staff Writer
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PALMDALE - On any given day, motorists in the Antelope Valley can pass
hundreds of acres of farmland being sprinkled with cool, clear, drinkable
water. They also can pass dozens of acres where plumbers are fitting new
homes with faucets, showers, bathtubs and yard-irrigation systems.
Given the circumstances, one might think there's water, water everywhere.
Fact is, in an earlier time, water used to bubble up through the desert
floor because the water table was so high.
But today, things have changed.
In recent weeks, at least two builders have been advised that Los Angeles County Waterworks District No. 40 may be unable to provide the water needed for their new housing tracts in Lancaster.
Although the waterworks district has yet to officially refuse water service, it has "sent letters saying water may not be available," said Paul Novak, planning deputy for 5th District Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich.
At this point, "there is no definitive policy, nor is there any change in policy" concerning the availability of county water for new homes in the Antelope Valley, Novak said.
The question of continued water availability is related to "litigation between some carrot farmers and everyone else who pulls water out of the ground in the Antelope Valley," he said.
Those other users include Lancaster, the Palmdale and Quartz Hill water districts, the Antelope Valley Water Co., the Palm Ranch Irrigation District and the Mojave Public Utility District, but they do not include the county's local waterworks districts or the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency.
In October 1999, the Diamond Farming Co. filed a lawsuit against those water agencies, asking the courts to decide who has the rights to the water beneath Diamond's land in southeast Kern County.
In its lawsuit, Diamond contended the water agencies were illegally using Diamond-owned water to supply other growers throughout the Antelope Valley.
In response, water-agency officials contended they pumped no water from the land owned by the carrot-growing company.
In January 2001, Bolthouse Farms followed Diamond's lead to find out who has the first rights to the water under its carrot fields.
Bolthouse filed suit against the same six water agencies plus the Rosamond Community Services District, the Littlerock Creek Irrigation District and Los Angeles County Waterworks districts 37 and 40, the latter of which supply most of the water for Lancaster and west Palmdale.
All's not well
"The problem in the Antelope Valley is the water is unadjudicated," which means anyone with a well, including carrot farmers, can extract unlimited amounts of water from the area's aquifer, Novak said.
At issue at this point is why county waterworks officials now are questioning their ability to provide service to the two new Lancaster tracts, he said.
A source familiar with the carrot growers' lawsuits said county water officials may be concerned that a compromise may be in the works for the adjudication of the Valley's water supply.
Adjudication would set limits on the amount of water available to all users, including local water agencies, the source said.
That, in turn, would require water agencies and growers to rely on higher-priced state water imported via the California Aqueduct by the Antelope Valley East Kern Water District, the source said.
Adding to the problem are the limitations on the amount of water AVEK can obtain and process for the Valley's water agencies, the source said.
Yet another factor is that the county soon will have to shut down 12 of its 38 Antelope Valley wells because of changes in federal regulations concerning arsenic levels in drinking water.
At this point, "The agriculture guys are blaming the water districts for pumping madly - which is true - and the water districts are blaming the ag guys for pumping madly and not using AVEK - which is true," the source said.
"You've got both demands on a finite resource that is not being recharged because of an ongoing drought."
There's only so much
Steve Williams, Palmdale's assistant city manager of community development, confirmed that the L.A. County Waterworks District "is working on a new policy with regard to water supply for new projects that are coming anyplace … in Waterworks District No. 40."
Nearly all Palmdale homes west of the AV Freeway - including the 5,200 homes planned in the Anaverde housing project and the 7,200 homes planned in the pending Ritter Ranch project - are within that district, Williams said.
The letters from the county advised developers planning two Lancaster housing projects of approximately 70 lots each that "if they wanted the tracts approved, they would have to find water from outside the Antelope Valley in sufficient quantities to serve those projects," he said.
The message for Palmdale is that its home developers may be required to do the same thing as is being required in Lancaster, Williams said.
The difference is that most of Lancaster is served by the county, while only about a third of Palmdale is, he said.
Development all wet?
The county's ultimate stance on providing water for new housing tracts is no small matter for Palmdale, where thousands of homes are planned in areas served by the county waterworks districts, Williams said.
When the plan for Ritter Ranch was brought forward, its builders reached an agreement with the county waterworks district to obtain water.
But that agreement is nine years old, and "it required Ritter Ranch to do things that have not been done," Novak said.
At this point, the county's position is that those failures mean Ritter Ranch has breached the contract, he said.
Williams confirmed that county attorneys have filed an affidavit with the courts contending that the breach of contract has occurred.
The filing already has been divulged to the firms that were expected to submit bids in bankruptcy court Thursday for the right to build Ritter Ranch, he said.
After speaking with representatives of other local water purveyors, "the L.A. County Waterworks District seems to be the only one having this issue," Williams said, referring further questions to county representatives.
His main concern is that the county provided no warning before taking the drastic step of requiring builders to acquire their own water, he said.
Awash in litigation
On Wednesday, Dean Efstathiou, L.A. County's deputy director of public works, and other county officials met with representatives of Palmdale and Lancaster to discuss the situation.
Reached Thursday, Efstathiou said the problem is that more water is being taken out of the Valley's water basin than is going in.
Solving that problem has been complicated by the legal action taken by the carrot growers, Efstathiou said.
"One of the issues that is paramount is who has the rights to the water in the basin," he said. "If we cannot resolve the issue between the farmers and ourselves, then we will have to go to court to talk to a judge and find out what is next."
His goal is to establish "a policy that is pertaining not only to the (county) waterworks district but includes another 18 water purveyors up in the Antelope Valley," Efstathiou said.
The biggest question is whether there is enough water to supply the area's existing customers, he said. If not, additional water must be obtained.
Meanwhile, the county has until January 2006 to resolve its problem with the 12 wells that no longer will meet the federal government's new arsenic standards, Efstathiou said.
"It will cost us millions of dollars to drill other wells to replace the wells we have in order to produce the water we need to produce for existing customers," he said.
Treatment no treat
As for AVEK, it has the ability to treat up to roughly 65 million gallons of water per day, or 4,000 acre-feet a month, for distribution to the county and other purveyors, Efstathiou said.
In 2003, AVEK was unable to meet the county's need in August for 4,750 acre-feet, he said.
In theory, AVEK can acquire up to 141,000 acre-feet of water a year, but in most years, it is able to obtain only a part of that maximum, Efstathiou continued.
For 2004, AVEK was limited to 65% of that maximum, and in 2000, it received about 35% of that total, he said.
As a result, "we had to spend almost $1 million to get enough water from other sources" to supply the district's customers during 2000, Efstathiou said.
This calls for a drink
To sustain continued growth in the Antelope Valley, it may be necessary for developers to strike out on their own and acquire the entitlements for the water required for their new projects so there is a guaranteed supply to meet demand, he said.
Russ Fuller, AVEK's general manager, contended that the agency has more than enough water to meet current demands.
In fact, the agency had to let about 40,000 acre-feet, or 13 billion gallons, of its allotted water run into the Pacific Ocean because no local agency or grower wanted to purchase it, Fuller said.
This year, the agency expects to release about 25,000 acre-feet, or 8.1 billion gallons, he said.
"Our facilities are not designed to be 'peak-use' facilities," Fuller said. "What we're supposed to be doing is running our facilities at a stable rate year-round."
With a maximum output of 65 million gallons per day, AVEK on average treats "about 35 million gallons of water a day for the year, so we're actually at about 60% capacity," he said.
So far, the agency has had to run at 100% of capacity only to meet the demand during a hot spell in July, Fuller said. "But that was an instantaneous peak - it had nothing to do with what we can achieve all year long."
Tears over spilled water
AVEK is planning to expand its facilities to provide 80 million gallons a day, but it has very little storage capacity, he said.
That means area water companies must be able to meet their day-to-day peak demands with water from other sources, Fuller said.
"We went over this very thing" with county water officials on Wednesday," he said. "It would be ludicrous for us to build a huge treatment system all the way from Northern California to meet peak flows" in the Antelope Valley.
"The other agencies need the ability to meet those peaks … and I gave them several suggestions on how to address that," Fuller said.
Lancaster's director of public works, Randy Williams, was at the same meeting.
Williams said the letters to the developers were "a bit of a knee-jerk reaction on the part of the county's water works at this point."
"They are in the process of issuing new letters to those developers," Williams said.
On Wednesday, "both cities expressed their concerns and disappointments with the actions that they were taking," he said.
After all sides exchanged views, "I believe we made a lot of progress, and I believe we are going to be able to nip this thing in the bud before it has any impact on anyone," Williams said.
"I know waterworks is saying that it's AVEK's fault, and AVEK is saying, 'No, it's not our fault; it's everybody else's fault,' but frankly, I think that we're all in this thing together and it's time for us to recognize there are ways that we can work together and provide the infrastructure and the water supply that are needed for the community, whether it stays the same size or it grows," he said.
"There are a lot of opportunities for us to make better use of the water
that exists in the Valley," Williams said, noting that plans to fully treat
the area's waste water to supplement or replenish the Valley's water supply
will be a big step in the right direction.
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