6 Comments

1. mellie says:

   Wednesday, May 18, 2016 at

   All this “conservation” will not work. It will never satisfy the evil globalists at “the top” because they are insatiable and in their leftist bubble. They will always want more control, more power and more money. This is a big part of the evil globalist Agenda 21 from the rotten U.N. and socialist Europe to oppress and re-mold us to be sheep, like them, and they call these “projects” different names locally to confuse the issue and the people,like us, who are affected negatively in every little aspect of our lives,like the “Open Space” areas, where we the people are prevented from doing anything, as well as others. Everyone should contact his legislators to stop this madness from taking over our own country.

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2. David salinas says:

   Wednesday, May 18, 2016 at

   Very eye opening. Thanks Steve.

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3. Susie Evans says:

   Wednesday, May 18, 2016 at

   I agree with Mellie. Current residents and businesses can conserve, but you can’t add more homes and businesses that will need water. Hold off on all the building projects until this drought is OVER! Newhall Land and Farming, Sterling Ranch, The Preserve at Sloan and those variances so homes can be clustered must stop! I don’t see our County Board of Supervisors, incumbents and candidates even considering no growth due to this drought!

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4. jim says:

   Wednesday, May 18, 2016 at

   Well done, and well said Steve. You’ve gone far beyond what most folks out here would do to conserve water – and save money. I’ve gone 90% native/drought resistant plants and complex adaptive irrigation (drip where effective, rotors where it isn’t) on our large lot out east of you. I’m not ready to run pump hoses out the upper story windows just yet though.

   As for the politics involved I really doubt pointing at one side or another addresses reality. When it comes to money and policy, both sides seem to eventually end up doing the same thing: Screwing those who aren’t sitting at the table when decisions are made. You can’t blame socialist Europe for Mike Antonovich’s support for nearly unlimited development in the Fifth District of LA County. Nor have I found any reason to believe that the SCLarita City Council is a hotbed of leftist liberals, and that includes back in Jill Klajic’s tours in the 1990’s. Most of the time, the SC CC makes the local gentry and businesses happy, as well as a lot of the regular folks.

   The problem is, nobody can keep an eye or ear on all the decisions being made in corporate boardrooms, banks and government committees and agencies. Even if it were possible, which citizens are going to donate the time, money and energy to do so? With nearly 40 million people in California, there are thousands of land use and development decisions made every year.

   Sure, we have laws that limit power and authority. When that isn’t working we get mad, rise up and demand change. We get our representatives to tighten up and close loopholes that allow unfair advantage. And it works for a while. And then we go back to being busy with our lives, our jobs and our families.

   And it starts all over again.

   “We have the best government that money can buy.” – Mark Twain

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5. Steve says:

   Thursday, May 19, 2016 at

   Jim I agree.

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6. Waterwatcher says:

   Friday, May 20, 2016 at

   Yes the traffic will be horrendous, 357,000 added car trips per day at buildout. This project will add 269,000 tons per yer of green house gases to our atmosphere (which Newhall Land said was not a significant amount.)

   But, in addition to the traffic, what is really going to hurt us all loclly is not having enough water. For many years Newhall Land has controlled how water is reported in this valley. Water reports were all managed and consultants hired by Valencia Water company, the private water company that was wholly owned by Newhall Land and Farming. Since it was private, no public records act requests are allowed, no disclosure of documents, etc. Newhall/Lennar made sure this way of operating continued by means of the purchase agreement they made with Castaic Lake Water Agency when CLWA illegally acquired Valencia Water. It is in chapter 6 of the purchase agreement. Anyone can get this agreement from CLWA and read it to see exactly how our water supplies are controlled to benefit Newhall Land and Farming.

   When the Newhall Ranch specific plan was approved, Newhall Land said that the first two tracts would be served from retiring their farm fields. But something must be wrong with the water quality from their agricultural wells (their “C” wells) in the Ag fields because in the later EIRS they said the water will come from their “E” wells which are now serving the Commerce center and probably the Live Oaks community in Castaic, not the farm fields.

   But there is an even bigger issue here. Things have changed. Did anyone notice that when we had to cut off water from northern California a few weeks ago, Santa Clarita Water Company wells “broke air” and served the community cloudy water? Several Newhall County Water District wells have produced NO water for the last two years. We are at close to the lowest well water levels since the worst levels ever in 1991. As we urbanize and hardscape everything, we are NOT replenishing the ground water, so we probably have even less available than before.

   But here’s the major question to me. We have a huge perchlorate pollution plume in this valley from the Whittiker Bermite Industrial facility that is spreading in a westerly direction. It has closed several of Valencia’s water supply wells for which all of us will now pay to remediate. Even with remediation, production will be reduced. Why is it that we would consider supplying new houses when the health and safety of existing residents are at stake? Are we lemmings running off a cliff?

   I don’t care what the EIR said in 2011. We need to look at the water issue again. And everyone in this valley should be looking at it too. As usual, the Urban Water Management Plan that is about to be approved by CLWA says there is plenty of water to double our population. Do you believe it?

   If we get a water monopoly in this valley, there will be little hope of any true analysis of water issues that would protect the public and our water resources. I urge everyone to oppose a water monopoly and CLWA takeover.

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