[KHTS] – The state commission that determines whether Santa Clarita Valley ratepayers will have to pay for chloride treatment in the Santa Clara River recently granted an extension on the public-comment period and a request to delay a hearing until next year.

“(The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board) filed a request on Oct. 9 requesting an extension of time to file comments and an extension for the hearing,” said Jason Hone, assistant executive director for the Commission on State Mandates. “At several points, parties can ask for an extension for a good cause.”

The hearing is now expected to take place Jan. 24, and the comment period is scheduled to end.

A claim filed this week by Jennifer Fordyce, senior legal counsel for the RWQCB, asked the commission for an extension to review the draft because she did not receive the notice stating the commission’s staff report and recommendation regarding the claim.

KHTS AM-1220 published a story Oct. 8 stating the deadline for public comment on the Dec. 6 test claim hearing, was slated to end Friday.

““The Los Angeles Board respectfully requests a three-week extension of time to submit comments on the draft staff analysis,” Fordyce’s letter states.

The letter also requests an extension for the Dec. 6 hearing, because the state’s Regional Water Quality Control Board is scheduled to meet Dec. 5 to discuss business before the board, according to Fordyce’s letter.

The request came about a week after an attorney for Lewis, Brisbois, Bisgaard and Smith, the firm that represents the Sanitation District, filed a similar request.

Any additional requests for time “will be disfavored since they will further delay the timely resolution of this matter,” according to a response from Heather Halsey, executive director for the Commission on State Mandates.

The state Regional Water Quality Control Board is the body that set the chloride limit at 100 milligrams for the Santa Clara River’s watershed, which would require water-treatment facilities to be paid for by Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District ratepayers.

The Sanitation District filed a test claim back in September 2008 challenging the chloride limit as an unfunded mandate, which, if successful, would require the state to pay for it.

A Sept. 20 staff report from the Commission on State Mandates recommended denying the Sanitation District’s claim.