Cal Am’s desalination application deemed ready for a Coastal Commission vote, possibly by year's end.

After initially turning away California American Water’s application for its controversial desalination plant as incomplete, the state commission said Friday that the water utility had filled the gaps in its application. The proposal is clear to go in front of the commission for a final vote, potentially this fall. 

Cal Am resubmitted its application to the Coastal Commission in November 2021 after withdrawing it the previous year. The commission quickly determined the application was incomplete and sent it back to the utility for revision. The project, which has attracted a steady base of both opposition and support, has been a central point of contention in the debate over Cal Am’s ability to serve the community. However, the project has fallen into the background over the past year as the utility battled with the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District over the voter-mandated effort for the public water district to buy out the private utility. 

“We are slightly mystified,” says David Stoldt, general manager for the MPWMD, who has led the effort of a public buyout of Cal Am. 

MPWMD and Cal Am are involved in a tangled web of lawsuits and bureaucracy. The water district has a pending lawsuit against the Local Agency Formation Commission of Monterey County after a vote the government body made earlier this year that appeared to tank the public’s attempt to buy Cal Am. Cal Am and the water district also have an application in front of the California Public Utilities Commission regarding a water purchase agreement that would commit Cal Am to purchasing the water produced by an expansion of the Pure Water Monterey recycled drinking water project—a project the water district and supporters have cited as evidence as to why the region doesn’t need Cal Am’s desalination project. Then, earlier this month, the water district’s board of directors voted to hire an appraisal firm to estimate the value of Cal Am’s local assets—with the intent of making an offer on the water utility’s system by January. 

Josh Stratton, spokesperson for Cal Am, calls the Coastal Commission’s determination a “big, big deal.” No dates have been set, but Stratton says the goal is for the commission to hear and vote on the project before the end of the year. 

The Coastal Commission recently turned down the Poseidon desalination plant proposed for Huntington Beach, a project that was decades in the making. In that case, the commission faulted the project for its open ocean intake system, which would have caused harm to marine life. Cal Am’s project proposes to use slant wells, which pulls ocean water from a subsurface layer, minimizing the impact on marine life. 

Although the Coastal Commission’s approval would offer the most significant boost to the project, the desalination plant would still have to clear local permitting hurdles, says Tom Moore president of the Marina Coast Water District. Moore says although the county initially approved development permits for the plant, which would be located near the Monterey Regional Waste Management District headquarters, the Marina Coast Water District successfully sued to vacate the local approvals after the Coastal Commission deemed Cal Am’s application incomplete.