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Newhall County, Calif., Water District Board Candidates Tackle Questions

Posted on: Thursday, 22 September 2005, 18:00 CDT

Sep. 21--SANTA CLARITA -- Newhall water board candidates declared alliances and sharpened stances like contestants on a reality show as they split on policy confronting the small but often-controversial public water company at a public forum Monday.

Vying for seats on the Newhall County Water District board are incumbents Barbara Dore, Joan Dunn and Maria Gutzeit, along with challengers B.J. Atkins, Ed Dunn and Trish Lester.

Top vote-getters in the Nov. 8 race will be elected to three seats on the five-member board that governs the agency retailing water to 30,000 throughout the Santa Clarita Valley.

Lester, who runs a Valencia-based public-relations firm, did not attend the moderated question-and-answer session at City Hall that was organized by the Democratic Club of Santa Clarita Valley and the local California Republican Assembly chapter.

The battle lines were drawn early on as Gutzeit, Dore and Atkins declared support for each other's candidacy while husband and wife Ed and Joan Dunn formed an alliance of their own.

"She is a rational, intelligent person who actually reads the reports," Dore said of Gutzeit, the board's current president.

Joan Dunn said of her husband, who last served on the Newhall water board in 1997: "He felt his job is to make sure things get accomplished."

The election comes after a tough year for the local water retailer. Some complained of rates higher than those of other water providers, while the adoption of a controversial resolution challenging the estimated water-supply levels in Santa Clarita unleashed a flood of criticism from politicians and others.

Some read the move by a board majority -- including Gutzeit and Joan Dunn -- as an attempt to slow development, which is approved only when there are adequate water supplies. An independent consultant later found there was sufficient water available to meet projected demands for the next 20 years, pending future acquisitions.

Still, opponents argued that water officials are relying on questionable sources that might not be available to serve planned developments.

The board rescinded the resolution in April, but disagreement lingered as to how the agency should carry out its business.

At the forum, ideology separated the candidates. Atkins and Dore, who had voted against the resolution, believe demand should drive water policy -- a stance that could encourage development.

The Dunns are concerned about reliability of supply and the limits a shortage would impose on this parched, prairie region where population is expected to increase from 250,000 to more than 428,000 residents in 25 years.

"We need to have enough water to support growth when we do (grow)," said Dore, who with Atkins supports importing water from surrounding counties and the State Water Project to boost local supply to meet projected growth. "The worst we can do is wait and see -- and see what happens when we need it."

Atkins, a local environmental consultant, agreed: "That's what we're hired to do -- or elected to do, I should say."

Ed Dunn said officials of the Castaic Lake Water Agency, which allocates water to smaller retailers as Newhall, "should responsibly manage what they have." He distrusts shared sources such as Castaic Lake and state supplies, which he said could be cut off during emergencies, and he favors capital projects to bolster local storage.

"We need water stored in this valley," he said. "Developed water is what we need to know about, not water that's stored somewhere else."

Gutzeit agreed with Dore and Atkins overall on supply, but has staked out the middle. Demand and growth cannot occur unless local agencies follow remedies outlined in the Urban Water Management Plan, the region's primary water-planning document, under revision this year.

The remedies include cleaning up contaminated groundwater and making transfer deals with Kern County agencies.

She urged interagency cooperation: "No one district could bear the cost of those projects." If population growth is going to require water retailers to seek new sources, she said, "The developers need to pay for this water, not the existing ratepayers."

Gutzeit also defended allegations repeated by Atkins that Newhall water rates were high, and a recent decision by a board majority to cede service areas to Santa Clarita Water, a subsidiary of the Castaic Lake Water Agency.

"The old boundaries would not have been very efficient," she said. "I'm glad the board resolved that." She also said studies found Newhall was "right in the middle of the road" on water rates for a utility of its size.

Most criticized lawsuits filed by environmental groups against controversial board decisions. Last month, the California Water Impact Network sued when the board approved annexing a proposed industrial park along Sierra Highway.

"They have an unwillingness to hammer out solutions to these problems," Dore said. "This is a way to slow things down, ... to delay job creation."

Joan Dunn said she doesn't like litigation, but "you have to have redress. You have to be serious to get their attention. If they come in and talk and get no's, then what?"

Atkins said he intends to bring "common-sense business practices" to the agency "so we have the water supplies needed to support responsible growth in the future."

Ed Dunn countered: "I like us to be a clean water district once again and not be controlled by special interests."

"I believe in truth -- the truth in the water figures," Joan Dunn said.

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Source: Daily News - Los Angeles, California

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