A sea change in water management
Santa Clarita Valley to be divided into three geographical groups as new agency goes into effect
The Santa Clarita Valley has a New Year’s resolution of its own this season: adopt a brand new water agency.
Beginning Jan. 1, the Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency goes into effect, ending a half-century tradition of water delivered to SCV homes by one of three main water purveyors.
Whether you get your water delivered by the Newhall County Water District, the Santa Clarita Water Division or the Valencia Water Company won’t matter in the new year, when water ratepayers are to be recognized as living in one of three water divisions.
The divisions divide the SCV into three geographic groups: Division 1 in the south; Division 2 in the north and Division 3 to the west.
“This is similar to a county supervisory district – the people from a smaller, defined region elect their representative to serve on the larger government body,” said Steve Greyshock, spokesman for the Newhall County Water Division. “SCV Water will have three electoral divisions.”
“By 2022, three representatives will be elected from each electoral division for a total of nine directors,” he said.
Electoral Divisions
“The electoral divisions were created by an expert demographer to ensure fairness and compliance with the California Voting Rights Act,” Greyshock explained for The Signal recently.
“The boundaries were approved by the boards of NCWD and CLWA and were included in the legislation,” he said, referring to Senate Bill 634 which was signed by the governor in October.
Most of the people in Division 3 currently get their water from the Valencia Water Company.
Most of those in the south, of District 1, get their water from the NCWD while those in the north end of SCV get their water from the Santa Clarita Water Division.
After Jan. 1, however, all SCV water ratepayers will get their water from the SCV Water Agency.
“They will go into effect on Day One,” Greyshock said. “These electoral divisions do not follow the old water district boundaries. The old boundaries were merely one of numerous factors that went into drawing the map. “
Safe, clean water
SCV residents will turn on their taps in the new year and notice nothing new at all.
It’ll be the same safe, clean water the Castaic Lake Water Agency was mandated to deliver for the past half-century.
“Retail water service will not change between electoral divisions,” Greyshock said.
“It will remain consistent throughout SCV Water. In other words, the electoral divisions will not operate as their own water district. The purpose of the electoral divisions is to ensure all corners of the Valley have equal representation.
“The boundaries of the old water districts dissolve from a governance and service standpoint,” he said.
“Some accounting will be kept within the old water district boundaries.
This is because of debt. Accounting practices will be established in order to ensure debt from one past water district is not transferred to customers from a different past water district.
Val Verde and Castaic customers who receive their water from SCV’s fourth and smallest water retailer -- Los Angeles County Water Works District #36 -- will not receive water from the new agency.
Debt consideration
“With respect to retail water services, we will track costs by division as part of our budgeting and accounting process,” CLWA General Manager Matt Stone, told The Signal in a recent interview. “As noted in legislation, the outstanding debt of each retail division will be tracked by retail division.
“Initially, we will continue to operate each division for a period of time, so that the field crews and customer service staff who know each service area will remain focused on serving those areas,” he said. “However, we will begin cross training our teams and moving to common software and other systems so we can better operate and serve the overall SCV Water service area.”
Whether you live in Division 1, 2 or 3, the overriding concerns expressed water officials was that they have roughly the same number of people and that they have elected representation.
“They are designed to have equal populations and conform to other provisions of the California Voting Rights Act of 2001,” Stone said.
“The legislation sets forth the boundaries of these electoral divisions. Elections will be held in 2020 and 2022 to arrive at a 9 member board, with three from each of these divisions.
“Initially, we will continue to operate each division for a period of time, so that the field crews and customer service staff who know each service area will remain focused on serving those areas,” Stone said.
“However, we will begin cross-training our teams and moving to common software and other systems so we can better operate and serve the overall SCV Water service area.”