SANTA CLARITA, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 05/11/15 -- The Santa Clarita Valley (SCV) Sanitation District received the approval of the United States Environmental Protection Agency of important technical changes to the state-mandated chloride (salt) compliance requirements in the Santa Clarita Valley on April 28th. These important changes will reduce costs to Valley property owners and will prevent steep and recurring state fines, state penalties and potential federal fines that property owners would have had to pay.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved an amendment to the Water Quality Control Plan for the Los Angeles Region (the Basin Plan), which dictates the actions the SCV Sanitation District must take to meet the State-mandated chloride limit for the SC Valley. This important federal action is the final regulatory approval needed. The Basin Plan changes have also been approved by State regulators, the Regional Water Quality Control Board-Los Angeles Region, the State Water Resources Control Board and the California Office of Administrative Law.
"We have worked diligently for the past year and a half to secure the required State and Federal approvals of these critical changes," stated Phil Friess, Technical Services Department Head of the SCV Sanitation District. "This Basin Plan amendment supports the SCV Sanitation District's commitment to build the most environmentally sound project to meet the State-mandated chloride limit for the Valley's two wastewater treatment plants, while also providing the least expensive, viable solution for our ratepayers -- the Valley's property owners."
The SCV Sanitation District received approval of these important cost-saving changes, which will also prevent steep and recurring State and Federal fines: a four-year extension of the State's construction deadline to July 2019, a 3-month averaging period for chloride concentrations instead of a daily measurement and flow-weighted averaging of chloride concentrations between the Saugus and Valencia Water Reclamation Plants.
"We will be able to save our ratepayers -- the Valley's property owners -- up to $11 million," said SCV Sanitation District General Manager Grace Hyde, "because with flow-weighted averaging we will not have to build an expensive pipeline between the Valley's two wastewater treatment plants." The 3-month averaging of chloride concentrations will also reduce project costs, because less advanced treatment facilities will be needed to meet the State-mandated limits for chloride.
The approved four-year extension of the State's construction deadline will prevent steep and recurring State penalties and fines that Valley property owners would have had to pay, because the SC Valley would otherwise have been in constant violation of the State's chloride limit starting on May 4 of this year, and continuing for at least four years. The approved extension allows the SCV Sanitation District the time needed to design and construct the advanced treatment facilities necessary to remove chloride (salt) from the Valley's treated wastewater and to meet the State-mandated limits for chloride in the SC Valley.
The Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District is responsible for the treatment and management of all the sewage discharged to the sewer system by residences and businesses in the Santa Clarita Valley.
