The media quoted EHL on a bizarre Los Angeles County scheme to develop remote parcels without a reliable water supply.
On July 15, 2016 (“Los Angeles County proposal to let landowners use hauled-in water worries environmentalists”), the Los Angeles Times reported on a County-initiated proposal to permit tens of thousands of single homes in the Antelope Valley area with no water supply other than trucks to haul it in. Currently, hauled water is only used as a temporary, last resort for drought-related emergencies.
Contrary to the advice of the health department and with an admitted failure to even identify a sufficient supply of water, the proposal would place new development in locations also deficient in public safety and transportation infrastructure. And what happens when the trucking company goes out of business or the water becomes unaffordable?
Opponents include Dan Silver, executive director of the nonprofit Endangered Habitats League, who described the proposal as “so wrongheaded and dangerous it defies belief.” “My big question,” he said, “is this: Why is the county spending time and money to produce thousands of pages of environmental analysis if there’s not enough water to haul to new homes up there in the first place?”
On behalf of EHL, the law firm of Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger submitted comments on the draft Environmental Impact Report for the proposal. We urge the Board of Supervisors not to waste any more taxpayer money on it.
