City planners are scratching their heads trying to figure out what Los Angeles water officials are planning for the Elsmere Canyon Tunnel portion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct.

On Thursday morning, a pitch was made in writing by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power asking the owners of property at both ends of the tunnel to give up their claims to that land.

The Santa Clarita Watershed Recreation and Conservation Authority owns both portions of tunnel land in the area of San Fernando Road and Highway 14.

It was at the authority's meeting Thursday that the pitch was presented. Representatives of both the authority and the city of Santa Clarita, in attendance, held in their hands a document they're still trying to decipher.

At first blush, the document - a letter addressed to senior city planner Jeff Hogan - looks like a bid to buy portions of the tunnel property.

In citing its continued operation and maintenance of the First Los Angeles Aqueduct, the department asks Hogan that the property's owner (the conservation authority) quit its claim to specific tracts of tunnel land; specifically .16 acres at the north end of the tunnel and 2.79 acres at its south end.

The Department of Water and Power document states it wants to "relocate/realign the existing 40-foot-wide easement" at both ends of the tunnel.

One Santa Clarita real estate buyer suggested to The Signal that the proposal could be as innocuous as a request to simply widen the tunnel at both ends.

It is signed by Kelly W. Nicholson, a real estate officer who works for the Los Angeles water agency, and includes a form letter familiar to most home buyers that includes characteristics useful in decision-making, including details about: Acreage, baths, bedrooms, and whether or not there's a fireplace or pool on the property.

Phone messages were left with Nicholson in a bid to answer some of those questions. Those messages were not returned late Friday.

The 95-year-old underground Elsmere Canyon Tunnel, however, is a vital final link in the Los Angeles Aqueduct.

So, when downtown water officials submitted a letter to the conservation authority quoting the tunnel land's listed property value at $951,561, local officials were taken aback.

"We don't know what it means, either," said Santa Clarita City Manager Ken Pulskamp when asked Friday to explain the document.

"The first time I saw that letter was at the meeting," he said. "We have the same questions you do. We don't know why they want it. Those questions have been given to (city) staff and told to find out what they want."

Pulskamp wasn't the only one at the meeting left scratching his head.

"It was really difficult to understand," said Paul Edelman, Chief of Natural Resources and Planning for the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, which is a joint partner in the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

"It appears that particular parts of the project are also on MRCA land. So, it's not 100 percent owned by the authority," Edelman said after Thursday's meeting. "Both agencies really need to look at this."

The next step is answering questions raised by the pitch.

"It raises more questions than it answers," Pulskamp said. "We directed our staff to do exactly that, get some answers."

Water and power spokeswoman Kim Hughes said she could not provide specifics about the document or its requests until Monday.

One aspect of the deal remains very clear for Edelman, Pulskamp and other water officials - the Elsmere Canyon Tunnel is a very big deal.

"This is where water arrives from the eastern Sierras and moves underground to the San Fernando Valley," Pulskamp explained. "This is a very big deal."

Aside from its recently assessed value of close to $1 million for the land, the underground tunnel is a vital artery in the supply of water to southern parts of Los Angeles County.

As the last stretch of the Los Angeles Aqueduct completed in 1913, the Elsmere Canyon Tunnel remains a crucial link that conveys water from the eastern Sierra mountains in the Owens Valley to Los Angeles reservoirs. Specifically, water is siphoned from Tunnel 102, from Whitney Canyon, to the last tunnel of the aqueduct, Tunnel 104, ending up in the San Fernando Valley.

jholt@the-signal.com