Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District Board Members Adopt an Ordinance Banning Saltwater Pools; Officials Continue to Combat Chloride Discharge to Protect the Santa Clara River.

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. -- On November 9 the Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District board adopted an ordinance making it illegal for both new and existing saltwater pools to be connected to the sewer system. When saltwater pools are drained they contribute to higher salinity levels in the Santa Clara River. This ban on saltwater pools is believed to be the first of its kind in the United States and may serve as a model for communities struggling with related chloride issues.

When saltwater pools are drained or when their filters are backwashed, they put a salty waste into the sewer system. The Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District's wastewater treatment plants provide extensive treatment and produce water that meets drinking water standards, but do not remove salt. The state's Regional Water Quality Control Board has established a limit on the treatment plants' level of chloride (salt) and current chloride discharge levels are above that limit.

Swimming pools contribute about 125 pounds of salt per day, or about half of a percent of the chloride now entering the sewer system. If there is widespread conversion to saltwater pools, it could increase up to nine fold. If salt levels discharged into the river do not decrease, the Sanitation District may have to install new treatment equipment, possibly more than quadrupling Valley residents' annual sewer bills to $500 per household.

"Over the past few years we've worked diligently with Santa Clarita Valley residents to reduce chloride levels in the Santa Clara River and cannot risk a reversal of this trend with the addition of saltwater pool systems," said Jim Stahl, Chief Engineer and General Manager for the Sanitation District. "This ordinance, combined with the ordinance prohibiting installation of automatic water softeners and with outreach asking community members to voluntarily unplug their automatic water softeners, provide the community with tangible actions they can take to protect the river."

Violation of the ordinance will carry a penalty of 30 days imprisonment and/or a $1000 fine - the same penalties as the ordinance banning installation of automatic water softeners. In March 2003, it became illegal to install automatic softeners in the Santa Clarita Valley. Through a response to public education efforts, the fraction of households in the Santa Clarita Valley operating automatic water softeners has dropped from one in seven in 2003 to one in eleven in 2005.

The Sanitation District serves the wastewater management and solid waste needs of the Santa Clarita Valley. The role of the Sanitation District is to construct, operate, and maintain a regional system to collect, treat, and dispose of wastewater and to provide for management of solid wastes. The Directors of the Sanitation District are the mayor and a designated City Council member of Santa Clarita and the Chairperson of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

For more information on automatic water softeners and salt, please see the Sanitation Districts' web site at www.lacsd.org/chloride, call 1-877-CUT-SALT or email [e-mail].