OUTLOOK CLOUDY ON WATER COURT RULING ON TRANSFER RAISES QUESTIONS OF SUPPLY, PUTS PROJECTS IN LIMBO.

Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - Uncertainty about the water supply in the Santa Clarita Valley has thrown several large developments, including the massive Newhall Ranch project, into limbo.

A court decision earlier this month found that the environmental impact report for the Castaic Lake Water Agency's purchase of 41,000 acre-feet of water from Kern County was insufficient.

``Every single project now has to at least take another look at their water supply,'' said Barbara Wampole, vice chairwoman of Friends of the Santa Clara River, one of the groups that challenged the water transfer. ``How foolish it would be to build homes that may not have water.''

While the ruling by Superior Court Judge David Yaffe did not invalidate the water purchase, and dry up the projects' supplies, it has been sent back to a lower court for review.

``We're in limbo,'' said Conal McNamara, a deputy for 5th District Supervisor Michael Antonovich, who will move this week to delay the board's consideration of the 21,600-home Newhall Ranch project for 90 days because of the court decision.

``The board cannot be asked to reach a decision without all of the information,'' McNamara added.

Once the court rules, the water picture in Santa Clarita should become more clear, officials said. And then, officials and environmentalists will start adding up the water demand in the rapidly growing Santa Clarita Valley, where the population is expected to at least double in the next 20 years, and comparing it with the actual supply.

``At issue is the cumulative effect of all this development,'' McNamara said. ``We have to look at the entire picture.''

Newhall Ranch is expected to bring 70,000 new residents to the Santa Clarita Valley.

An additional 10,000 units are now under development in the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County that surround Santa Clarita, including the Newhall Land's West Creek and Westridge projects and Sun Cal Co.'s Tesoro Del Valle.

Plambeck and other environmentalists assert that there is not enough water for any of those developments, under construction near environmentally sensitive land west of the Golden State Freeway and along San Francisquito Creek.

However, Marlee Lauffer, a spokeswoman for The Newhall Land and Farming Co., said none of those projects would be affected. Newhall Ranch is expected to need 17,600 acre-feet of water per year, and less than 10 percent of that is expected to come from the water transfer in question.

One acre-foot of water is enough to supply two families for a year.

``We agreed to the delay to give the supervisors sufficient time to understand how the issue affects Newhall Ranch,'' Lauffer said.

The legal dispute over water has stalled Newhall Ranch for almost two years. Construction is now not expected to start until 2004 at the earliest, according to Lauffer.

In May 2000, Kern County Superior Court Judge Roger D. Randall blocked construction of the 12,000-acre minicity planned west of Six Flags California until Newhall Land could prove it had enough water to supply the new community.

Newhall Land has conducted more than two dozen studies and cut several deals to buy and store enough water for twice the expected demand of the development's future residents to comply with the judge's order, Lauffer said.