Santa Clarita Water Picks Up Ally in Rate Fight With PUC

CANYON COUNTRY — The leaders of the state agency that supplies water to the Santa Clarita Valley voted Wednesday night to back the Santa Clarita Water Co. in its fight against a proposal by state utilities officials to compel the company to cut prices 20%.

The board of directors of the Castaic Lake Water Agency voted to file as an “intervenor” with the state Public Utilities Commission, which is deciding whether to order the Santa Clarita company to cut its prices.

The agency maintains that the cuts would force the company to buy less water from the agency, and the agency would probably have to recoup the lost revenue by raising prices for consumers throughout the valley.

In a report issued last month, the PUC’s Division of Ratepayers Advocates alleged that the Santa Clarita Water Co. squandered money on high salaries, luxury cars and phantom employees. The report proposed that the company reduce customers’ prices to compensate them.

Mike Kotch, one of the Castaic agency’s 11 board members, said that another reason for jumping in on the side of Santa Clarita is that the agency can’t afford additional losses when it “is currently spending about $1.5 million more than they are making on water sales.”

Castaic sells water to four companies in the Santa Clarita Valley area and Santa Clarita Water Co. buys the most.

“We are not advocating that Santa Clarita Water Co. should not reduce its prices,” said Richard Sagehorn of the Castaic agency. “We disagreed with the amount of water the PUC said they could buy from Castaic and with the way they came to their conclusion.”