Newhall Ranch Housing Development

Two environmental groups have filed suit to prevent shipments of water from Kern County farms to burgeoning developments in the Santa Clarita Valley. Officially, the annual shipments of 41,000 acre-feet of water are destined for Castaic Lake Water Agency's existing customers in northern Los Angeles County and southern Ventura County, as well as for upcoming Santa Clarita Valley developments that the agency would serve. An acre-foot of water is enough to meet the needs of two families for a year.

The Santa Clara River, which snakes 84 miles from the San Gabriel Mountains to the Ventura County coast, is one of two California waterways that rank among the nation's most threatened for 2005, according to an environmental group that annually compiles a list of endangered rivers.

Environmental groups have appealed a judge's decision to allow construction of the 21,000-home Newhall Ranch subdivision, an attorney for the groups said Wednesday. Environmentalists lost their challenge of the Newhall project in October.

Environmentalists are expected to continue their fight against the 20,885-home Newhall Ranch subdivision with a rally today decrying proposed changes to the river that runs through the site. As part of its project, developer Newhall Land & Farming Co. hopes to build flood-prevention banks along the Santa Clara River, as well as utility crossings and other features that require a federal environmental permit. The permit application is being reviewed by the U.S.

While seeking approval for the largest subdivision in Los Angeles County, developer Newhall Land & Farming Co. has also been waging a court battle to force two oil companies to clean up "severe and extensive" oil contamination spreading under the property. The developer estimates the cleanup could cost tens of millions of dollars, according to court records. In the suit, filed in 2001 in Los Angeles Superior Court, Newhall Land accuses Kerr-McGee Corp. and Medallion California Properties Co.

Los Angeles County planning officials proposed revising their guidelines on environmental reports Tuesday after allegations that the developer planning the largest project in county history secretly destroyed endangered plants without public review. In a report, the county Department of Regional Planning said it needs new manuals on how environmental consultants should conduct themselves and how the state's planning laws, which call for full public disclosure, should be followed.

Ventura County officials said Monday that they are considering a new legal challenge to the 21,600-home Newhall Ranch subdivision, based on allegations that the developer withheld information about an endangered species that it was later accused of destroying. They also urged neighboring Los Angeles County to send the development -- the largest in county history -- back to the drawing board, saying they do not trust the environmental reports filed by Newhall Land & Farming Co.

In a setback for opponents of the 21,600-home Newhall Ranch subdivision, a Kern County judge this week rejected a legal challenge to a water report that clears the way for future development of the Santa Clarita Valley, water officials announced Wednesday. A lawsuit brought by environmental groups and Ventura County in 2001 accused the Castaic Lake Water Agency and three other local water agencies of overstating water supplies and underestimating growth projections for the next two decades.

Opponents of the 3,050-home Ahmanson Ranch subdivision regularly turn out by the hundreds to decry the project's perceived threats to the Santa Monica Mountains, the rugged playground of Los Angeles' posh Westside. They count among their allies many movie stars and Hollywood players -- and a former vice president of the United States. Just 18 miles to the north there are plans for an even larger development: the 21,600-home Newhall Ranch, on the western edge of the Santa Clarita Valley.

The developer of the 21,600-home Newhall Ranch subdivision has failed to report the amount of pollution the project could dump into the fragile Santa Clara River, one of Southern California's last natural waterways, according to an analysis by the state's main water-monitoring agency that The Times obtained Thursday.