PRESSURE BUILDS WATER REGULATIONS IN AGUA DULCE AREA CAUSING CONTENTION.

Byline: Nicholas Grudin Staff Writer

AGUA DULCE - Wells are running low and tempers are running high in a hamlet whose name means ``sweet water,'' as Agua Dulce residents face drought-driven shortages and stringent county building regulations.

At the beginning of this year, Los Angeles County health officials began enforcing rules that new homes cannot be built unless an ample supply of well water is proved available. Development cannot rely on hauled-in water.

As these issues cement in the community, Agua Dulce landowners fear their property values will plummet. County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich is trying to pressure the county Department of Health Services to rethink its rules.

``The supervisor is very concerned that the existing county policy is depriving people of their ability to develop their property,'' said Paul Novak, planning deputy for Antonovich, who is pressing the county to ease its restrictions on Agua Dulce.

``The reality is that there are a lot of areas in Acton, Agua Dulce and the Antelope Valley where there is not a municipal system, and people are relying upon well water. Wells are not producing at their historical levels, and the only way for people to get by is through hauled water.''

Agua Dulce has long been a battleground for water issues because it is not a part of any public utility. About 3,300 residents there rely on private wells, the levels of which have been drastically falling, according to Andy Fried, the president of the Agua Dulce Town Council.

``There is absolutely no question that the problem is that the groundwater level is dropping significantly,'' Fried said. ``It's a serious problem, and, if we don't have an extremely wet winter to help with surface recharge, the problem will get worse.''

Some residents feel that the problem was caused by the overdevelopment of the area and developments that are not sensitive to the region's desert climate, which is unsuitable for expansive lawns, soccer fields and sweeping vineyards, all of which exist in the hilly community.

``As a community, we are overdrafting our water resource. We're just using too much water from that confined basin,'' Fried said. ``In other words, there are too many straws in the cup, and some of those straws definitely pump significantly more water than is appropriate for an arid region, remembering that we are right on the periphery of the desert.''

Other residents and water-industry professionals blame a 10-year drought on the water shortage, which they say is manageable through water conservation and importation.

``Water's been being hauled in out here for the last 50 years. It's been a normal and accepted supply, but apparently the county feels that there is a problem with hauled-in water,'' said Don Henry, owner of Boston Henry Co. Water Pump Services.

According to the county's hauling regulations, which went into effect at the beginning of this year, new building cannot rely on hauled water. Furthermore, developments must prove an over-abundance of well water to build - three gallons per minute for 72 hours straight - a guideline that Henry says is unreasonably excessive.

``It's bizarre. It's hard for me to communicate how far they're off from what's really necessary to keep someone healthy,'' Henry said. ``It's like telling people that your car has to get 300 miles per gallon to get on the freeway. It makes us look foolish when we try to explain it.''

Henry's water usage estimate for a family of four is 240 gallons per day in order to live comfortably.

Furthermore, according to Henry and others, it is enraging when the county conducts these well tests because workers dump thousands of gallons of water onto the road, or dirt lot, in order to test a well's strength.

But health officials said that the restrictions are necessary to ensure that there is a sustainable water supply for every home that is built. Hauled water, which is more vulnerable to contamination, should not be the answer, officials have said.

``The health department wants each of the lots for new homes to be able to provide their own sustainable water supply before they approve an issuance of a building permit,'' said Dean Efstathiou, deputy director of the department of public workers.

But well drillers in the Agua Dulce area think that the county has gone too far.

``We're still drilling wells and being successful, so I don't know that it's a crisis yet. The county is making it a crisis,'' said well driller Bill Batson, who owns Batson Drilling Service and has drilled from the Antelope Valley to Malibu for the past 30 years.

Antonovich agrees.

``We have asked the health and public works departments to re-examine the 72-hour well requirement. We want to see if that can be changed,'' Novak said.

If Antonovich is unsuccessful in turning the building policies around, the residents of Agua Dulce could pay a hefty price.

``These landowners in this area have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on these properties, and almost overnight they've been rendered useless by these county requirements,'' said Archie Floyd, who operates Road Runner Pump Service, which serves the region.

Town Council President Fried hopes the water rage does not cause any more damage to the community, although he suspects it will.

``One of my primary concerns is to keep the water issue from polarizing the community. Unfortunately, that polarization has already started to some degree. It's a very divisive issue.'' Fried said.

Nicholas Grudin, [phone]

nicholas.grudin(at)dailynews.com

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3 photos

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(1 -- 2 -- color -- ran in SAC edition only) Above, a private well near Andy Fried's Agua Dulce home has gone dry so he has water trucked in for household needs. At left, a pond in Agua Dulce is low because the area's water table has dropped. About 3,300 residents rely on private wells.

David R. Crane/Staff Photographer

(3 -- ran in SAC edition only) Like other Agua Dulce residents, Andy Fried, had moved to the region for the wide open spaces. But after sustained drought, private wells have gone dry

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