FORA board frowns on Marina Coast desal dreams.

Public meetings don’t usually get this exciting.

On March 13, the Fort Ord Reuse Authority saw some action when it considered Marina Coast Water District’s proposal to build a desalination plant to supply future Fort Ord development.

The main issue: A Marina Coast desal plant could compete with California American Water’s proposal to build its own desal plant, essentially right next door in north Marina.

On March 12 the Monterey Peninsula Regional Water Authority, a six-city mayors’ group working to get a new water supply for the Peninsula, agreed to send FORA a letter regarding the Marina Coast desal proposal. Their request to the FORA board: for FORA staff to work with them, and with the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District, to look at “potential interactions” between the Cal Am and Marina Coast desal projects.

To translate: Don’t approve this unless we’re sure it’s not going to mess up the Cal Am desal project.

During the public comments, Cal Am attorney Anthony Lombardo noted that Marina Coast has been battling Cal Am since their previous desal partnership, the now-defunct Regional Desalination Project, fell apart.

Since then, two major developments have deepened those tensions. One: On March 13, the same day as the FORA meeting, a judge ruled Cal Am doesn’t have to pay Marina Coast back for the roughly $18 million Marina Coast sunk into the failed desal project. Two, Marina Coast is actively attempting to stop the test well for Cal Am’s current desal project—filing another request for a temporary restraining order just hours before the FORA meeting. (A judge rejected a similar Marina Coast motion in January.)

“Marina Coast Water District appears to be the most dangerous entity we have as it relates to the economy of Monterey County,” Lombardo said.

He suggested Marina Coast’s desal proposal was essentially just another move to spite Cal Am. “I can just see it now: The next thing we’re going to hear in court is, ‘FORA has blessed this project which will interfere with the Cal Am proposal to construct new wells,’” he said. Lombardo asked the board to hold off on taking a position on the Marina Coast desal project until it’s proven it won’t interfere with Cal Am’s.

Marina Coast board member Peter Le and Keith Israel, general manager for the Monterey Regional Water Pollution Control Agency, noted their two agencies are currently negotiating for Marina Coast’s use of MRWPCA’s “purple pipe” to deliver Marina Coast desal water. That existing infrastructure is one of Marina Coast’s strengths as it presents a desal project Le says can be built quicker and produced more cheaply than Cal Am’s.

Without FORA’s blessing, Le said, those negotiations could be imperiled. “Don’t blame us, and you guys can’t make a decision,” he said.

Under a deal from the 1990s, FORA has contracted Marina Coast to supply water to the Ord Community as the former Army base is developed into residential and commercial uses. According to current figures, Marina Coast needs to come up with 2,400 more acre-feet for the full Fort Ord build-out, though it’s only using a fraction of the 6,600 acre-feet currently available.

Del Rey Oaks Mayor Jerry Edelen seemed to appreciate Lombardo for calling out the conflict between Cal Am and Marina Coast. “The major party pooper, Mr. Lombardo, Esquire, gets up and throws a hand grenade right in the middle of the room,” he said. The bottom line, he added, is that the six Peninsula cities that stand to lose roughly half their water supply under the state’s Carmel River cutback order need Cal Am’s desal project more than FORA needs Marina Coast water for future Ord Community buildout.

His thoughts on approving a Marina Coast desal project that blocks Cal Am’s: “Not over our dead bodies, literally dead bodies in a situation like that,” he said. “That’s cutting our throats…You try and cut our throats, all hell’s going to happen and we’re going to war, and we’re going to win that war.”

Notably present at the meeting: Monterey Downs developer Brian Boudreau and his chief operating officer, Beth Palmer. The Monterey Downs environmental impact report has been hung up in recent months over the question of where the 550-acre mixed-use project on the former Fort Ord would get its water supply.

Seaside Mayor and FORA board member Ralph Rubio has been supportive of Monterey Downs—which, if approved, would likely be annexed into Seaside and would need the Marina Coast water. Rubio has also publicly vouched for Cal Am’s desal project as a member of the MPRWA, putting him in a politically delicate position.

Rubio made some attempts to grease the FORA board in favor of approving the early planning process for a Marina Coast desal plant. He offered caveats, including that FORA coordinate between various agencies to ensure there’s no conflict between the various desal projects. Officials can’t make an informed decision about Marina Coast desal without that planning work, he said.

Seaside City Councilman Ian Oglesby, also a FORA board member, initially seemed to side with Rubio. It’s a chicken-or-egg scenario, he said: Ord Community development can’t happen without a water supply, and the water supply can’t be funded by a broad base of Ord Community ratepayers until development puts them there.

But once the battle lines were drawn between Marina Coast and Cal Am, Oglesby agreed with Edelen. “We’re already at war,” he said. “I’m glad somebody threw another grenade out there. Because it wasn’t clear their design was on the same footprint as Cal Am’s. So it’s either one or the other.”

Seeing the lack of support for a motion to approve Marina Coast’s desal planning, FORA board member and County Supervisor Dave Potter moved to simply receive the report and take no action. “I don’t think this is something that’s necessarily ripe for prime time,” he said.

The FORA board unanimously agreed.