KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
The Castaic Lake Water Agency and the Newhall County Water District are meeting Tuesday night to discuss a merger combining the two agencies, officials said Tuesday.
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A poll released by the two water agencies cited support for the move, which follows the mergers of the CLWA — originally established to be the region’s wholesaler for that most valuable State Water Project resource — with the Santa Clarita Water Co. and then more recently, the Valencia Water Co.
The reasoning for the support given by agency officials — who claim more than 70 percent of ratepayers support the move — was a cost savings created by the vertical integration. A CLWA report touted the potential for more than $14 million in savings by combining resources.
“The economic analysis proved there are strong, tangible benefits of a new district. But we also need to know how our customers feel about potential changes,” said Steve Cole, General Manager for Newhall County Water District. “The results of the opinion study confirm that the public is eager to pursue savings and efficiencies, even if it means changing how water is managed in the Valley.”
The meeting Tuesday will be an opportunity for residents to weigh in on the new deal, which water officials hope will streamline operations and improve transparency, in addition to saving cost.
“Our current water districts work generally well. But we know we can do better,” said Matt Stone, general manager for the CLWA. “The two Boards have considered the various comments and ideas gained from nearly a year of public presentations and workshops where they had an opportunity to hear ideas and concerns. The resulting proposal has been tailored to better address these concerns.”
Santa Clarita Valley water agency officials have also developed several possible names for their new combined agency, including “Santa Clarita Valley Water District” and “Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency.”
NCWD and CLWA have also been engaged in a public engagement process to ensure customers are aware of the potential changes. These efforts appear to have worked, as awareness of the process and potential for a new district has effectively doubled and support for the idea has increased as the proposal has been refined and developed since the initial baseline survey conducted in February, 2016.
The water agencies’ study was conducted by Probolsky Research – a national public policy opinion research company with offices in Irvine, Sacramento and Washington, D.C. It included a scientific sample of Santa Clarita Valley registered voters. The study has a 95 percent confidence rating and 5.8 percent percent margin of error. It included both mobile phones and landlines and was conducted in both English- and Spanish-speaking households.
Here are some of the other findings:
The study focused on specific policy proposals developed as part of a year long exploration process, including:
- 71 percent of Valley water customers support the creation of a new water district
- 80 percent of residents support the cost-savings of a new district
- 82 percent support a new district’s regional focus rather than the current structure
- 60 percent of the region support their elected water leaders to form the new district
The study also informed participants of specific challenges and proposed solutions to gauge support and levels of comfort with the proposal.
- 72 percent of customers preferred the districts’ gradual approach to implementation, even if it delayed full cost savings
- 72 percent preferred the newly proposed division-based governance structure, providing every voter with an equal voice and representation, even if it meant losing their current governance structure
- 64 percent preferred a firewall to protect from sharing old debts between the new district
If this is the poll developed by Newhall County Water District’s, public relations firm, hired tro promote the dissolution. – it was a totally phony poll or what is commonly call a “PUSH” poll. For Newhall Water, only 479 out of 10,000 households returned the form. There was no way to say no, but many people still did. I see they are not represented in the information released to the newspaper. More propaganda. If the water agencies were really going to try to find out what people think, would there be some question that allowed them to keep their existing agency?
This reminds me of the City trying to force electronic billboards down our throats. That didn’t work either.
Its too bad that this news service just uncritically regurgitates their press releases without even getting comments from the many people that oppose this water monopoly and take over.
Well, well, well. Get it? It’s all about the wells.
I don’t know what kind of PR crap is being reproduced here but this circumstance shouldn’t be both the subject of a news article and an argument in favor of the proposition that the PR is being paid by and for.
I don’t know who WW is, but I agree that there was very little information regarding the dramatic change in water management taking place presented through the NCWD or CLWA that reached my home or crossed in front of my eyes in the past year or so. I always read about it AFTER the fact either here or over on the other, ahem, local news site.
I also find it interesting that this reporter (or editor) chose to use the term “merger” in its presentation of the take-over of SCWD and Valencia Water by the CLWA. Read ALL of the history of these maneuvers and you will find it hard to consider these operations as “mergers”. I’m not just talking about SCOPE and Lynne’s minions’ efforts to get their version out. I’m talking about court documents and legislative shenanigans up in Sacramento as well.
Somebody (or -bodies) badly wants all of the SCV to be under one Water Lord. Somebody wants to have all water service decisions made in one room under one management. That may not be a bad thing; after all we do get pretty much the same drought and the same rain wherever we live in this valley.
But this is not something that has been carefully brought out over time to all of the citizens of this valley (and owners/users of it’s watershed). If anything, what’s happened is a series of events that have occurred just far enough apart for the public to forget about the last one before the next shoe drops. In other words, as viewed through my old and no doubt slightly paranoid brain it looks like the fix is in.
I have no proof or evidence that anyone here is doing anything other than trying to bring the best service and quality of water to all of the SCV. But I tell you this – and I’ll say it as often as you like until I see it verified otherwise – this looks like the kind of behind-the-scenes-behavior of people who don’t want to stir the public up. They don’t seem to want to take the time for a full public understanding of what this means in terms of a single semi-private management and control of what is a relatively scarce and publicly owned resource. And its the only one after breathable air that we really can’t survive without.
It’s probably too late now for any kind of full review that could let the antiseptic effect of sunlight in to kill anything nasty. But then again it’s always been about “Who watches the guardians?”, paraphrased from the Latin. That’s right. Even the Romans worried about honesty, truth, and trust when confronted about behind the scene actions that could affect them.