After years of trucking in water, LARC Ranch residents are finally set to get a permanent water supply via a pipeline being built with the help of the Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency.
LARC and other Bouquet Canyon residents were left high and dry when water stopped being regularly released from the Bouquet Reservoir nearly a decade ago, reducing their supply to a trickle over concerns of road flooding.
“LARC has been around since 1959, and we had a wonderful reservoir working for us for years and years until it went dry,” said Kathleen Sturkey, executive director of LARC Ranch, a nonprofit that provides programs, services and residential facilities for developmentally disabled adults.
Since then, LARC began trucking the 11,000 gallons of water needed to support the 65-acre ranch and its residents every month, at a cost of thousands of dollars per month, according to Sturkey.
It’s now been eight years since Sturkey announced the ranch would be looking to build a permanent water supply, working with SCV Water to construct a pipeline that would connect the ranch to the public water system.
While plans were submitted to the State Water Resources Control Board for review back in 2018, the pipeline’s approval remained elusive — until earlier this month, when the board notified SCV Water of its eligible grant funding that encourages the consolidation of small community water systems into public water systems, especially for those that serve disadvantaged communities.
SCV Water was informed it’s eligible to receive up to $1.1 million in incentive funding, along with up to $10 million in 0% interest rate financing, with SCV Water’s board of directors authorizing the submission of a financial assistance application and agreement as an initial step to receive the incentive funding, according to the Oct. 7 SCV Water meeting agenda.
“It has taken some time, but we’re very excited about it,” Sturkey added, noting that SCV Water’s assistance means the organization will not have to fund the pipeline until it reaches their property, making it much more affordable. “We’re very fortunate that they were kind enough to take that on. It’s good for our future and good for other future projects.”
The pipeline is set to extend 1.75 miles along Bouquet Canyon Road to LARC and the Lily of the Valley Mobile Village, from Shadow Valley Lane to the LARC turnout road.
While only an 8-inch pipe is needed to serve LARC and Lily of the Valley, SCV Water is set to upsize the pipe to 12 inches to allow other developed areas, including ranches, residential and businesses, located along the pipeline to connect to it.
Anyone wanting to connect would be required to pay for the physical connection and the appropriate connection fees, according to SCV Water officials.
LARC hopes to get the pipeline operational by the end of 2022, according to Sturkey.
