State demands action on water; Sewer assessment rate could more than triple if proposed changes take effect

From the Santa Clarita Signal:

Local sanitation department officials have been told by the state that they must clean up a mess the state helped create, a Sanitation Districts official said.

The Los Angeles County Sanitation District must reduce the salt content of the treated wastewater released from two Santa Clarita Valley facilities into the Santa Clara river, said Steve McGuinn, chief engineer and general manager for the Sanitation Districts. The salt-laced water released from two SCV sanitation plants makes it nearly impossible for farmers downstream to grow strawberries or avocados — two crops that are sensitive to high salt levels, he said.

The water leaving the SCV plants’ salinity averages 150 milligrams per liter, said Francisco Guerrero, a Sanitation Districts civil engineer.

The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, controlled by the State Water Resources Board, requires the salinity to be no higher than 117 milligrams per liter, said Dirk Marks, Castaic Lake Water Agency water resources manager.

The Sanitation Districts’ solution is an increased local sewer assessment to pay for $250 million to upgrade two SCV water treatment plants to remove the salt. The proposed sewer assessment rate hike could take the price from $14.92 per month to $47 per month during the next six years.

Part of the problem is that the water that comes to the Santa Clarita Valley is salty when it begins its journey, long before it is used by residents here.

What’s interesting to me is that Colorado River water is way saltier than Delta water; in fact, Metropolitan blends water imported from the Delta with its Colorado River supplies to bring the salinity into an acceptable range. So it’s interesting to see complaints about Delta salinity.

Read more from the Santa Clarita Signal by clicking here.

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