Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency officials recently signed off on a plan that will bring Bouquet Canyon something it’s been seeking for a decade: a new water supply.
At last week’s board meeting, the agency approved the contract for a 1.75-mile, 12-inch pipeline that will run along Bouquet Canyon Road to LARC Ranch and the Lily of the Valley Mobile Village, from Shadow Valley Lane to the LARC turnout road.
SCV Water received grant funding for an 8-inch connection, but budgeted funds for the larger size to allow developed areas, including ranches, residences and businesses along the pipeline who are on well systems the opportunity to connect.
The difference is expected to be around $450,000, which the agency already had budgeted.
The latest funding support for SCV Water came from the agency’s ability to work with the State Water Resources Control Board through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund. The fund is a federal program established in 1996 that blends state and federal funds to make sure states can achieve the goals of the Safe Drinking Water Act.
The amount of funding made available increased from $3.9 million to $8.1 million, according to Kevin Strauss, spokesman for SCV Water.
“More affordable and reliable,” Strauss said, in terms of how it will impact the water supply for those most directly affected.
A request for comment Monday was not immediately returned by officials from LARC Ranch, a 65-acre residential community for adults with special needs, which was one of the most impacted entities.
Kathy Sturkey, longtime executive director for LARC Ranch, has discussed her efforts to get water for her facility for years in the pages of The Signal. She previously indicated the facility’s annual need was approximately 11,000 gallons, which the facility had to pay to truck in after its well system failed.
An initial plan, proposed in January 2015, called for turning the closed-down Zuni Campground in the Angeles National Forest into an “environmental classroom,” which would have allowed for a regular flow of water from the Bouquet Reservoir, according to a March 2015 Signal article that noted the problem had just reached its first birthday.
Some of the obstacles to solutions have ranged from the need to remove silt and detritus gathered in Bouquet Creek; stringent requirements of the National Environmental Protection Act procedures; the coordination of a number of agencies; and the concerns over flooding.
One of several former members of Congress who worked on the issues, Steve Knight, called the roadblocks “mind-numbing” in a 2015 report.
The issues began when the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which was releasing water into Bouquet Creek from its reservoir as part of a contract in 2014, reduced the release because the silt deposits were causing the water to flood the road.
As an example of one of the many obstacles faced in the multiagency effort, when L.A. County officials at the time offered to intervene and clear the creek, they were made aware of federal forest officials’ concerns for endangered species that might have been dependent upon the creek bed for their habitat.
“This project has been a decade in the making,” said Brett Payne, chief water engineer for SCV Water . “We are excited and ready to start construction. This new public water system will increase drought resiliency and reliability in this part of our service area for LARC Ranch and Lily of the Valley and other existing developments.”