Builder Offers to Sell Ground Water to State : Antelope Valley: Officials of two agencies vow to fight the proposal. The supplies would come from an area 16 miles southeast of Palmdale.

A developer is negotiating to sell the state nearly 6 million gallons a day of Antelope Valley ground water for delivery to other areas of drought-stricken Southern California, angering desert water officials who want to keep it for local use.

State Department of Water Resources officials confirmed Wednesday they are interested in a possible long-term contract with developer Raymond Shelton that would pay him more than $1.6 million a year for water from Mountain Brook Ranch. The ranch is in the small mountain community of Valyermo, about 16 miles southeast of Palmdale.

Antelope Valley water officials said they believe it would mark the first major instance of Antelope Valley ground water being exported by the state or anyone to other areas of Southern California, which local residents feared would happen as the state’s drought increased.

Officials of two of the high desert’s largest water suppliers--the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency, and the Palmdale Water District--said Wednesday they would fight the proposal. They contend it would rob the region of its already disputed ground water resources and raise serious water-rights questions.

Larry Mullinix, deputy director of the state Department of Water Resources, said the deal could proceed only if the state were shown that the agreement would not harm the region’s water resources.

Shelton, listed in public records as president of the San Clemente-based Ray Shelton Development Corp., could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

State officials said Shelton contacted them months ago and proposed an eight-year contract to sell to the State Water Project ground water from the ranch, where he plans a development. It would involve building a 1.5-mile pipeline to carry the water to the nearby California Aqueduct, state officials said.

The issue is particularly critical because a recent study found that the Antelope Valley already is substantially overdrawing its ground water supplies. One result, scientists believe, might be sinking and cracking ground in Lancaster, which has damaged desert lake bed runways at nearby Edwards Air Force Base.

The ranch property is near Big Rock Creek, a major source of ground water recharge for the Antelope Valley when water flows out of the San Gabriel Mountains. Major withdrawals of ground water from the creek area could lessen the water available to the rest of the Antelope Valley, local officials said.

“We are very upset about it and we’re wondering how to stop it,” said Hal Fones, general manager of the Palmdale Water District. “By removing the water from the basin, you’re damaging all the other users,” added Wallace Spinarski, general manager of the Antelope Valley water agency.

According to state water officials, however, Shelton maintains he has a legal right to the ranch’s ground water. Also, he contends the withdrawals would not deplete the Antelope Valley’s water supply, saying the water under the ranch is separated from the rest of the valley’s ground water by the San Andreas Fault.

State officials have talked with Shelton about buying at least 6,570 acre-feet of water annually, enough to serve about twice that many households each year. At the state’s projected purchase price this year of $250 per acre-foot, the payments would total $1,642,500 a year.