VALLEY PRESS EDITORIAL

October 4, 2005

To Meet All the Valley's wastewater needs for decades to come.

Don't flush away plan to treat wastewater.

Editorial: The Los Angeles County Sanitation District has drafted a wastewater facility plan that is geared to meet all the Valley's wastewater needs for decades to come.

With the population of the greater Antelope Valley, northern Los Angeles County, expected to reach more than 1 million by 2025, water resources to serve the growing population will be strained, to say the least. It is a given that the Valley - its residential, business, commercial and agricultural water users - must strike al balance on how to best use and recycle this precious resource.

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For more than a year now the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts have been in the process of finalizing plans to build new wastewater reclamation facilities that will help meet everyone's needs for the next 20-plus years. The plan, in the public hearing process, does not come without a steep price tap - estimated at $270 million. While the cost is steep, the outcome is necessary to ensure there is enough water to serve the high desert's growing population.

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The draft Palmdale Water Reclamation Plant 2025 Facilities Plan and Environment Impact Report calls for the purchase of 1,400 parcels of private property to build facilities that will expand the Palmdale Wastewater Treatment Plant to treat wastewater to full tertiary treatment and to construct wastewater storage reservoirs and agricultural water reuse facilities.

The Valley cannot afford to continue to flush away its valuable water resources. And if we don't pay for it now, we'll be paying much more later.