NEWHALL ISSUES REVIVED WATER USE IN QUESTION.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Staff Writer

A recent state Supreme Court ruling aimed at protecting water rights is being analyzed to determine what bearing it could have on the massive Newhall Ranch development.

Ventura County Supervisor Kathy Long, leading the legal battle against the 22,000-home project, has asked the county's legal staff to review last week's ruling. The decision prohibits new development from overdrafting groundwater and depleting the supplies pumped by farmers and others with historic water rights.

``The impacts for California are enormous,'' said Scott Slater, a Santa Barbara lawyer who worked for the Santa Clarita Water Company until its purchase by the Castaic Lake Water Agency.

The Newhall Land and Farming Co.'s Newhall Ranch project, planned west of Santa Clarita and east of Ventura County's rich agricultural Santa Clara River Valley, should not be threatened by the decision, company spokeswoman Marlee Lauffer said.

``We have already assured the Ventura County farmers that there will be no impact downstream,'' Lauffer said. When they approved Newhall Ranch, Los Angeles County supervisors ``made it a condition that there would be no increase on groundwater use affecting the farmers in Ventura County,'' she added.

Nevertheless, Ventura County officials want to know if the ruling will fuel their efforts to block Newhall Ranch development. In their lawsuit, a judge ruled that Newhall Land must clearly define its water source for Newhall Ranch.

In the lawsuit challenging Los Angeles County approval of the project, the judge found environmental documents incomplete.

In a separate case, the state Supreme Court determined that developers must show a reliable source of water beyond groundwater others have claimed over the years, Slater said.

``The supervisor has asked county counsel to study the ruling and report back to see if it applies,'' Long's aide Mary Ann Krause said.

``I would say those people with land in the vicinity of Newhall Ranch who have used water in the past have very strong claims to local groundwater.''

Newhall Land officials want additional state water and local groundwater for homes proposed at Newhall Ranch.

Opponents argue that state supplies are reduced in drought years and the demand on local groundwater from wells escalates.

During the worst of the six-year drought of the 1980s, Santa Clarita relied heavily on well water, and that need would be greater now because of population growth since then.

``What (the decision) means for cities is that they need to be very careful to ensure when they're planning for future water supplies that they either have a proven case for prescriptive water rights or they better have surplus to cover their needs in time of drought,'' Slater said.