Well, that relationship soured fast.
Today, California American Water Co. filed a lawsuit in Superior Court against Cemex, a cement and building materials company with a sand mining operation north of Marina. Cal Am is asking the court for a temporary easement so it can install a slant test well on part of the Cemex property, where Cal Am plans to site intake wells for a desalination plant.
The two parties have been working together for almost two years to choose a test well site, according to the press release, and agreed to the financial terms of Cam Am's purchase of the easement, but Cemex hasn't issued the final documents.
Cal Am claims it needs to keep a tight schedule to meet state-imposed deadlines to dramatically cut back its pumping from the Carmel River. Before it can even start to build a seawater desalination plant to replace that lost water source, however, it needs to prove its slant well design works (and avoids contentious groundwater intake, drawing only the seawater it has rights to) by running a test well on the Cemex site.
"The window of opportunity for installation of the test well is so limited, it was necessary for California American Water to file this action so that once it obtains the land use approvals to construct the well, it will be able to do so within the time allowed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service," today's press release states.
Cemex representatives could not be immediately reached for a response. (The Weekly received the press release at 4:44pm this Friday.)
Cal Am recently snagged a $1 million state grant to help fund its test well, but that's contingent on getting the thing approved in the first place. After the Marina Planning Commission and City Council rejected the water company's permit application, it's now headed on appeal to the California Coastal Commission.
The lawsuit seeks to ensure that as soon as Cal Am has the approvals it needs to build the test well, it will be able to break ground on the Cemex site.
Today's lawsuit may not come as such a surprise: Back in May 2012, Cal Am threatened Cemex with eminent domain to gain access to the property. The two companies announced they were working together soon afterward. (And in short order, Marina Coast Water District made its own moves on the same site.)
(3) comments
I could take two days to explain this to you but will give you a real short version..At one time Cal Am and MCWD were joined at the hip and the County asked Steve Collins to bring about the fruition of the Regional Water Project...It was all about to come together when the County decided to throw Collins under the bus by claiming he had a conflict of interest, further a deposition shows the county was trying to find a way to get rid of MCWD and let Cal Am have the project for itself...So Cal Am paid them 3 1/2 million, because a private company couldn't runs a utility according to County ordinance..Dirty politics at it's worst..So now you see what a mess was created...You had an innocent man tar and feathered for their cause, a wonderful project scuttled, all for Cal Am's greed, and look where they are now...So, as i see it, all they have to do is reverse themselves, get the lousy County out of the way, and get the Peninsula people the water they so desperately need..
Pure desperation..You know Cal am...you could always go back to MCWD, partner up with them again, get the county to admit they might have screwed up mightily, and take the already permitted Regional Water Project out of it's moth balls and build the damn thing and get the 10,000 ac/ft of water the Peninsula needs...It's sooooo easy...
Will you please explain further?
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