SALT LEVELS TO BE LOWER BY 2016 FARMERS ENCOURAGED BY RIVER DEADLINE.

Byline: ERIC LEACH Staff Writer

Ventura County farmers are encouraged by a new deadline of 2016 to lower chloride levels in the Santa Clara River, fearing the crop-damaging salt could ruin farmland that produces hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crops each year if the problem gets worse.

But officials from Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County and the city of Santa Clarita, where residents face possible increases of $400 dollars a year in their sewer service fees, say the ruling is making it difficult to find an effective solution that is not so expensive.

``We were unhappy with the Regional Water Quality Control Board's decision to cut the schedule because it takes time to implement measures to reduce chloride,'' said Anne Heil, an engineer with the Sanitation Districts of L.A. County, which operates the Santa Clarita sewage treatment plants in Valencia and Saugus that put treated water into the river.

``We feel it doesn't allow us enough time to explore measures that are less expensive and more environmentally friendly.''

She estimated the cost of upgrading the Santa Clarita treatment plants with desalinization equipment at about $350 million to reach the goal of 100 milligrams of chloride per liter of treated water.

Most chlorides are salts, and in this context officials use the words interchangeably.

``We're doing a number of studies to determine if 100 milligrams per liter is the right number. If we have to meet that number all of the time, it will require hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrades to the treatment plants,'' Heil said.

Representatives of Ventura County farmers say they are encouraged by the new deadline and hope it puts pressure on the Sanitation Districts of L.A. County to find a solution.

Rex Laird, executive director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau, said ongoing studies of the problem could eventually show that a remedy to the chloride problem is needed even sooner, but farmers are encouraged by the Water Quality Control Board's unanimous decision Aug. 3 to move up the deadline from 2019 to 2016.

``We're still waiting to see what the studies are going to show,'' he said. ``I don't think it's over with, by any stretch. ... It's a classic situation where you've got one set of entities in another county operating without a lot of consideration for their neighbors.''

Of the estimated $700 million worth of crops grown in the Santa Clara River valley, many of them are sensitive, including avocados, said Laird, co-chairman of the Ventura County Agricultural Water Quality Coalition.

``Are farmers supposed to just sit by and let them pollute the groundwater that comes down the Santa Clara River?'' he said.

Ventura County Supervisor Kathy Long said the chloride threatens the county's $1.3-billion-a-year agriculture industry, a major employer and source of economic stability in the county. The soil in jeopardy is some of the best in the nation, she said.

The Santa Clarita Valley is one of the fastest-growing suburban regions in the state, and water from the sewage treatment plants in Valencia and Saugus goes into the Santa Clara River, which runs through the Santa Clarita Valley, across the Los Angeles-Ventura County line and through the agricultural lands around Santa Paula and the Oxnard plain.

Heil said it is essential to complete scientific studies to find a remedy what is effective for protecting the environment.

``We feel there is not an imminent threat to agriculture at this moment; otherwise we would take immediate steps,'' she said. ``Everyone agrees that if the river gets to 100 milligrams per liter it would be OK. We're about 40 miles away from the major farming in Ventura County, and there is quite a bit dilution that occurs by the time it reaches that area.''

Even though water generally leaves the Santa Clarita treatment plants at 140 milligrams per liter, groundwater tests downstream have shown 60 milligrams per liter, she said.

The Water Quality Control Board is scheduled to meet again in early 2008 to consider the results of these studies and possibly revise the chloride objectives regarding the Santa Clarita plants.

More than a third of the chloride in the Santa Clarita Valley's water can come from the California state water project, and droughts can increase the salt in the Sacramento-San Francisco Bay Delta, a source of the water that flows down to Santa Clarita.

Government officials up and down the Santa Clara River have been trying to curb the use of so-called ``automatic'' water softeners that also contribute to the salt problem, and efforts under way in Santa Clarita could have a major effect in removing chloride from the water there.

About 6,500 salt-generating water softeners are responsible for generating about a third of the chloride released from the two Santa Clarita-area sewage treatment plants, officials estimate.

The Sanitation Districts of L.A. County already offer Santa Clarita residents a $150 rebate for converting to water softeners that don't put salt into the sewer system, and legislation introduced by state Sen. George Runner, R-Lancaster, would allow the sanitation districts to require people in Santa Clarita to get rid of the salt-producing water softeners and rebate the reasonable value and removal costs.

``We believe that if we get these water softeners out we will be in compliance with the (chloride) objectives, except during drought conditions,'' said Vicki Conway, assistant manager of the technical services department at the sanitation districts.

eric.leach(at)dailynews.com

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