[SCV Sanitation District] – On Monday, Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District Director Laurene Weste stated, “Given the strong concerns expressed by the community regarding the proposed deep well injection location for the Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District’s State-mandated chloride compliance project, I agree with Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich’s direction to staff to evaluate other locations for the deep well injection component of the project. I encourage District’s staff to investigate alternative locations as expeditiously as possible to meet the strict regulatory schedule for the State-mandated chloride compliance project because, otherwise, all property owners will face steep fines associated with failure to meet the federal and state deadlines. Hopefully, we can satisfy community concerns as well as meet the strict deadlines.”

The Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District continues to answer questions, provide additional information, and take comments from the public on the Supplemental Environmental Impact Report for Alternate Deep Well Injection (Draft SEIR). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Regional Water Quality Control Board – Los Angeles, pursuant to federal and state law, are requiring the Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District to implement a chloride (salt) compliance project. The compliance project is necessary to meet state-mandated chloride limits for the wastewater produced by residents and businesses in the Santa Clarita Valley. The project must be implemented under a strict state schedule with interim milestones, which, if missed, will trigger substantial state fines that all Santa Clarita Valley property owners would have to pay.

A portion of the compliance project includes brine (salty water) disposal by deep well injection into very salty, unusable water 1-2 miles below the ground. This would not be fracking. Brine is a normal by-product of the advanced treatment (reverse osmosis filtration) necessary to remove chloride from the Santa Clarita Valley’s treated wastewater. The original deep well injection site is no longer available for development. The Draft SEIR evaluates the potential environmental impacts associated with relocating the deep well injection site 800 feet north of the location previously analyzed in the EIR that was certified for the chloride compliance project.

A third public hearing on the Draft SEIR will take place on March 9, 2015, at the Santa Clarita Activities Center, 20880 Centre Point Parkway, Santa Clarita. The hearing will begin at 7:00 p.m. with doors opening at 6:30 p.m. The document is available for review at www.lacsd.org. Written comments on the Draft SEIR will be accepted until March 23, 2015, and should be addressed to: Mark Giljum, Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County, 1955 Workman Mill Road, Whittier, CA 90601 or via email at mgiljum@lacsd.org.

The Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District is responsible for the treatment and management of all the sewage discharged to the sewer system in the Santa Clarita Valley.