Company may run AVEK water to farm airport land

Directors of the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency will discuss and possibly commit to providing water for the project when they meet tonight at 7 in the agency office, 6500 West Ave. N in Palmdale.

Wally Spinarski, general manager of the water agency, said AVEK received a letter from the Orange County-based Western Water Co. asking how much water could be available if Western Water supplied pipes to move water from the aqueduct to the airport, where numerous row crops are grown.

"We told them we can provide 20,000 acre feet each year for the next 10 years," Spinarski said. That much water could irrigate 4,000 acres, he added. Roughly 2,000 acres of the airport's 17,000 acres are currently being farmed.

If the Western Water deal is approved, the company could become AVEK's largest client, with the Water Works Districts of Los Angeles County coming in a close second, Spinarski said.

Approval would still be required by Los Angeles World Airports.

Water for the project would come from an AVEK-owned turnout in the California Aqueduct near 67th Street East and State Route 138. Near Littlerock Creek, it is the closest turnout to the airport property. Pipes would be used to move the water downhill 5.5 miles to the area to be farmed.

AVEK's Water Project Committee has met on the issue and has recommended the agency commit at tonight's meeting to provide the 20,000 acre feet per year for the next decade.

The water would be sold at the agency's regular wholesale agricultural rate, Spinarski said, which this year is $60 per acre foot if taken directly out of the aqueduct, and between $70 and $75 per acre foot if it comes from an AVEK-maintained network of pipes.

As a for-profit company traded on the Nasdaq, Western Water would sell the water for slightly more than it paid to make a profit for its shareholders.

"We think this project will be beneficial to all in the Antelope Valley," said Jim Tatum, a Western Water representative based in Victorville.

With the influx of carrot farmers into the Antelope Valley from the Bakersfield area, more irrigation water is needed, Tatum said.

"They understand the groundwater problems," Tatum said of the incoming farmers, "and they don't want any trouble. Using aqueduct water won't affect other farmers who are already using groundwater."

Tatum said if the project actually uses all 20,000 acre feet of aqueduct water each year, as much as 8,000 acre feet of the water his company brings in will seep into the ground, actually adding water to the aquifer.

Tatum is the same man who represented the SAMDA water group last year during that company's unsuccessfully try to export Kern County groundwater from the Fremont Valley north of Edwards Air Force Base. Kern County Supervisors blocked that move with an emergency ordinance making groundwater export illegal in the county.

"That move effectively killed the SAMDA project, and put them out of the water business," Tatum said. He is no longer with that company, h added.

Spinarski said AVEK has tried without success to get Los Angeles World Airports, which owns the land being farmed at Palmdale Regional Airport, to pay the estimated $10 million to install pipes to deliver aqueduct water to their land. So far, there has been no response, Spinarski said.