Newhall County Water Board President says that Regional Water Board ruling on Santa Clara River wastewater is a sham.

Adding additional insight into the Regional Water Board’s decision to shorten the time allowed for the Santa Clarita Water District to drastically reduce the chloride levels in waste water, Maria Gutzeit’s letter to The Signal certainly raises pointed questions about the Water Board’s decision.

Spurred on by Ventura County farmers who claim that their crop production has been harmed by "those rich people" in Valencia, it seems the only crops that could be affected by increased chloride levels may be the avocados. But even those studies weren’t conclusive according to Gutzeit. Crops such as strawberries, citrus and nursery stock weren’t studied at all. And the study on the avocados only included a literature review, not a true scientific study of the area.

Apparently the Regional Water Board seems to think that the only solution to this chloride problem would be the installation of a desalination plant in the Santa Clarita area as well as a 46-mile discharge pipe to move the wastewater directly to the ocean. Of course there could be other solutions to this problem, but according to Gutzeit they haven’t considered any alternatives yet.

Gutzeit also mentions that much of the salt in the water comes from the State Water Project, which apparently fails to adequately stop the mixing of salt water with fresh water in the Sacramento Bay Delta area, so this is more than just a local problem. Even with the proposal to ban all residential salt-based water softeners in the Santa Clarita area, the local chloride levels may not be reduced to the level mandated by the Water Board.

According to Gutzeit, the Regional Water Board also wants to stop the local Water District from recycling water that you could drink. And of course the farmers don’t want us to recycle the water - the more water that gets into the Santa Clara river, the more they have for their crops.

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