Citing delays due to litigation, the Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District of Los Angeles County is seeking an extension of a chloride compliance deadline mandated by the California Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Two decades ago, the state board ordered Santa Clarita to remove chloride from wastewater discharged into the Santa Clara River because salty water is deemed harmful to wildlife and agriculture downstream, as the river flows west through Fillmore, Santa Paula and the Oxnard Plain to the Pacific Ocean.

The Water Board mandated a July 1, 2019 deadline.

The SCV Sanitation District’s three-member board was finally able to award an $87 million contract in late January 2019 to build an advanced water treatment facility at the Valencia Water Reclamation Plant.

However, since the new Valencia plant would not be operational by the July 1 deadline, the District is facing steep non-compliance penalties.

“Because of the delay, we are not able to meet various compliance deadlines,” Bryan Langpap, P.E., BCEE, Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County spokesman, said Tuesday.

“We have been working with the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, the regulator for the chloride limit, to demonstrate that these delays were beyond our control and that we have made our best effort to comply,” he said.

In response, the Regional Water Board issued a tentative Time Schedule Order on Tuesday and made it available for public comment.

“If the TSO is approved and the SCV Sanitation District meets the order’s requirements, the district and its ratepayers will avoid regulatory fees,” Langpap said.

The TSO is available for review here.

Written comments must be received at the Regional Board’s office (320 West 4th Street, Suite 200, Los Angeles 90013) by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, April 10.

Comments may also be made at a public hearing scheduled for Thursday, May 9, 2019, at 9 a.m. in the city of Malibu (23825 Stuart Ranch Road).

The SCV Sanitation District’s three members are Santa Clarita Mayor Marsha McLean, City Councilmember Laurene Weste and Los Angeles County Fifth District Supervisor Kathryn Barger.

Read more on SCVNews.com about the chloride compliance effort.