The current proposal to hike the Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District fees to all property owners in the greater Santa Clarita Valley area to cover the cost of mitigating chloride levels in the local water will be decided tonight. A number of local groups and organizations have come out against this fee hike which is almost assured to pass regardless of the outcry from local residents.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010 is the final day of the Sanitation District hearings and there is a peaceful protest rally planned for in front of Santa Clarita City Hall starting at 4:30 PM that afternoon. Residents are encouraged to bring signs (on topic) to protest this proposed rate hike and speak out against it at the ensuing hearing which begins at 6:30 PM in City Council Chambers. Santa Clarita City Hall is located at 23920 Valencia Boulevard in Santa Clarita.

For those that can not attend the meeting, clink here to get the Sanitation Department Protest forms and go to the L.A. County Assessor’s office  for your parcel number look-up. All SCV residents/businesses should consider filling out and returning the protest forms which the Sanitation Department mailed on June 11.

The validity of the current reports setting the chloride standards for the downstream avocado and strawberry crops is being seriously questioned. There is a need for a valid science based study which should be completed on this subject before any rate increase is approved.

Here are some of the facts surrounding this issue:

• The State Department of Public Health and the EPA’s figures state that the human body can safely ingest 250mg of sodium chloride  per liter
• The water that SCV residents receive is roughly 140mg/liter; this is because there is naturally occurring salts present in the ground everywhere.
• Residents are NOW being required to reduce the sodium chloride to 117mg/liter, despite the fact that it is 140mg/liter when we receive the water
• The citizens of SCV have already paid dearly to turn in their water softeners under a program that this administration promised us would take care of the problem. It has, during non-drought years, but during drought years, sodium chloride levels are understandably higher
• The first four year rate increase will be $8.09 per sewage unit (household) per month, to pay for an Environmental Impact Report, preliminary planning costs, facility planning and consultants galore. After the first four years, it will increase to $49 per household per month until 2022 to actually build an unnecessary plant.

Historically, the Clean Water Act required, in 1978, that the Santa Clara River should be allowed no more than 100 mg/liter of salt, to be measured where pipes go from L.A. County to Ventura County.

In 1997, the L.A. Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) proposed to revise the standard, except in SCV and Ventura County to 143 mg/liter. This proposal failed in 2000.

In 2003, the Sanitation District board banned the installation of new salt-based water softeners. In 2006, the RWQCB reconsidered the total maximum daily load and established a chloride guideline concentration of 117 mg/liter. 

In 2008, the SCV Sanitation District proposed, and SCV voters approved Measure “S”, requiring that SCV residents get rid of their salt-based water softeners by June 30, 2009. Community members were told that it was far better to do this than to hit property owners with a four-fold tax hike to build a $500 Million dollar water-treatment plant, complete with a brine line to the sea.

Let your voices be heard either in person tonight, Tuesday, June 27, at Santa Clarita City Hall.