SEWAGE WARS COULD SEE TALKS ON TRUCE.

Byline: JIM SKEEN

Staff Writer

PALMDALE -- Negotiations could begin anew in the long, contentious battle over the Antelope Valley's sewage treatment efforts.

On June 27, the two boards governing the Los Angeles County sanitation districts serving Palmdale and Lancaster will get an update on a decision by water regulators to reject a proposed $4 million settlement over issues stemming from groundwater contamination and sewage spilling on to Air Force property.

Sanitation district officials voiced disappointment over the proposal being shot down.

"I'm not sure where we need to go from here," said Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford, who sits on the boards for both sanitation districts. "Our residents are taking a substantial increase to go to tertiary treatment. I'm not sure what else they want from us. It seems like they want to punish us. I thought their goal was clean water."

The Lahonton Regional Water Quality Control Board determined the proposed payment was not large enough, even though it would have been the largest penalty ever issued by that board and one of the largest ever by state water regulators.

"They (the Lahontan board) really encouraged us to re-negotiate the settlement," said Harold Singer, Lahontan's executive director. "They felt the dollar amount was too low. They also said they would like us to consider stipulated penalties if the districts did not complete the upgrades in time."

At issue are two cease-and-desist orders Lahontan made in 2004. Lahontan ordered the Lancaster district to keep sewage off Rosamond dry lake, which belongs to Edwards Air Force Base.

It also ordered the Palmdale district to clean up groundwater nitrates.

But district officials said the timetables -- 2008 and 2009 -- were unreasonable.

District officials filed litigation, triggering nearly two years of talks that have resulted in the proposed $4 million settlement.

Under the proposal, the districts would have paid $4 million to the state with $3.8 million to be used for a recycled-water distribution system in Antelope Valley.

The project, estimated to cost $119 million, would include 38 miles of pipeline, three storage reservoirs and five pump stations to link wastewater-treatment plants serving Lancaster, Palmdale and Rosamond.

If a settlement is not reached, it puts the recycled water project in jeopardy, said Ray Tremblay, head of the sanitation districts monitoring section.

"That is disappointing to the water community and it should be disappointing to the people of the Antelope Valley," Tremblay said.

One of the proposed settlements most vocal critics is Gene Nebeker, a former Lahontan board member who is involved in the Antelope Valley's ongoing groundwater adjudication battle.

"This is a tremendous victory for the community," Nebeker said of the proposal being rejected. "This sent a shockwave to the decision makers."

Nebeker has long argued for the sanitation districts to look at groundwater recharge as a way to deal both with their capacity issues and as away to build up the region's water supply.

"I'm trying to get the community to get together and propose a settlement to Lahontan - a settlement that doesn't stick it to the ratepayers," Nebeker said. "We need something that won't hurt the environment and has an immediate impact on groundwater.

"We have to put that water into the ground or we won't have any for the future."

Sanitation district officials said they looked at groundwater recharge, but getting approval for that would take as long as a decade.

The districts both want "tertiary" treatment plants, large storage reservoirs and the ability to use effluent to irrigate crops such as alfalfa.

In Palmdale, another issue is groundwater quality, including cleaning up nitrates.

Of the district's 27 monitoring wells, two have had readings above the state standard of 10 milligrams per liter.

james.skeen@dailynews

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