Measure S, approved by voters on November 4, 2008, enacted the Santa Clara River Chloride Reduction Ordinance of 2008. The ordinance required the removal of all residential automatic water softeners by June 30, 2009. Residents that still have automatic water softeners should visit the Automatic Water Softener Rebate Program webpage for information on how to remove their units.

No, the disposal of brine from an automatic water softener, even if you use potassium chloride, onto land or into a dry well is illegal. The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board) will not issue permits for landscape irrigation with brine and disposal brine into a dry well. Violators may be subject to penalties.

The Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District was mandated to build and operate a specialized treatment facility at the Valencia Water Reclamation Plant to remove chloride from wastewater before it is released into the Santa Clara River. The facility has been successfully operating since 2023. But too much chloride puts extra strain on the facility and significantly increases operating costs.  If you have an automatic water softener, the most important thing, as required by the Santa Clara River Chloride Reduction Ordinance of 2008, is to remove the unit. Other steps you can take include using non-chlorine bleach or hydrogen peroxide instead of chlorine bleach and minimizing the amount of laundry detergents and fabric softeners that you use, since many of these products contain chloride. You can find environmentally sound detergents and cleaners at most grocery stores.

If you add salt or potassium chloride to your water softener or have a water conditioning service do so, then you have an automatic water softener. If you have a water conditioning service change out the tank on your water softener on a regular basis, you have a portable exchange tank system that does not add chloride to the wastewater system and is acceptable for use in the Santa Clarita Valley.

After water is used for washing dishes, showering, laundering, flushing toilets, and other uses in the Santa Clarita area, the wastewater goes to the sewer. From there, it flows to either the Saugus or Valencia Water Reclamation Plants (WRP) for treatment. These treatment plants are owned and operated by the Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District (Sanitation District), and they discharge cleaned water into the Santa Clara River after it has been treated.

While the treatment plants remove many impurities and pollutants from wastewater, they are not designed to remove chloride. To help remove the chloride, the Valencia WRP installed an Advanced Water Treatment Facility (AWTF). The Advanced Water Treatment Facility consists mainly of microfiltration, nanofiltration, and reverse osmosis (RO). These are used to reduce the level of chloride (salts) in the plant’s effluent as required by the state. RO membranes use pressure to force water through a semi-permeable membrane, effectively removing dissolved salts, including chlorides.  The cleaned effluent water is discharged to the Santa Clara River.

No. Most of the chloride in the Santa Clara River comes from residences, including the chloride that already exists in the drinking water from your tap. Chloride also comes from soaps, detergents and other cleaning products, particularly laundry products. The discharge of chloride from industrial and commercial businesses is regulated by the Sanitation District, and Santa Clarita businesses have been prevented from using automatic water softeners since 1961.

A number of different treatment systems are available for the water you use in your home. View a partial list of water conditioning systems acceptable for use in the Santa Clarita Valley. The Sanitation District does not endorse any particular water treatment unit, nor does the Sanitation District provide any assurances regarding the effectiveness of any unit. If you need soft water, you can switch to an alternative means of softening your water, such as a portable exchange tank water softening system. Some vendors offer non-salt treatment units for conditioning water. Depending on your needs, you may also consider carbon filtration, or reverse osmosis treatment units.

If you have any further questions or want more information about your choices, you may call the Sanitation District toll-free at 1-877-CUT-SALT or email us at cutsalt@lacsd.org.

No. Although potassium chloride does not contain sodium, it still contains chloride.

Chloride is one of the two components of sodium chloride, also known as table salt or rock salt. It is also one of the two components of potassium chloride, also known as potassium tablets or potassium crystals.

It is not within the Sanitation District's scope to treat and serve drinking water. Any decision to further treat tap water must be made by the local water agencies in the Santa Clarita Valley. It may be very costly and difficult to treat all the tap water in the Santa Clarita area, since half of the potable (drinkable) water in the area comes from groundwater wells, and the groundwater is hard. Water treatment equipment would have to be installed and maintained at numerous wellhead locations scattered around the Santa Clarita Valley or combined to develop a centralized treatment facility and new distribution system.

Too much chloride in water can damage agricultural crops by causing leaf burn or drying of leaf tissue. It can also harm aquatic life if present at levels of 230 milligrams per liter (parts per million) for sustained periods.

The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board set a water quality objective of 100 milligrams per liter for the Santa Clara River to protect beneficial uses, including the farming of salt-sensitive crops such as avocados and strawberries. This water quality objective is a regulated permit limit for the discharge of treated wastewater to the River.  The chloride concentration in wastewater entering the treatment plant exceeds the discharge limit, and conventional wastewater treatment does not remove it. Therefore, an advanced water treatment facility was built specifically to remove chloride to comply with the discharge limit.

The Santa Clara River Chloride Reduction Ordinance, approved by voters in 2008, required the removal of automatic, salt-based water softeners that discharge chloride into the sewer system. The removal of residential automatic water softeners substantially reduced chloride levels in wastewater but was not sufficient to bring the wastewater treatment plants into full compliance with the chloride discharge limit.  However, the reduction in chloride levels greatly reduced the amount of chloride removal needed at the treatment plant, thereby saving over $70 million in costs for building the advanced water treatment facility. The reduced chloride levels continue to save ratepayers money by lowering the facility's operating costs.