In response to Brian Richards’ Nov. 23 letter:
There are three things we disagree on this whole water problem.
First, it has nothing to do with property rights or owning a home in the Santa Clarita Valley or any place in California.
Second, if people come here to live, it is true they came from someplace else. However, there will also be someone moving into the place they left, so the water usage will grow! The population of California is still growing (although not as fast as it has in the past.) And the growth is not just a drop the bucket, especially when the bucket has a hole in it. And not just in Santa Clarita, but all over California.
Third, as I suspected, the numbers you submitted were only partly true. If one reads beyond the first paragraph of the Public Policy Institute of California report, you will notice that there is much of the environmental water that is used to support agriculture and urban use. It is not as clear-cut as those numbers would make you believe. So, every drop does matter whether environmental, agricultural or urban. There is only so much water. Period.
We don’t stop building to shut people out, we do it to be responsible users of our resources. We hear so much about environmental impact reports and I have a hard time understanding how any EIR could possibly not see the negative impact 25,000 new homes would have on our water shortage in this state.
Ron Perry
Canyon Country