Marina Coast argues Cal Am test well is to blame for groundwater-level drop; Coastal Commission (at least partly) agrees.

UDPATE 7/6: The California Coastal Commission agreed with Marina Coast, requiring Cal Am to obtain an amended permit to resume pumping its desalination test well.

In a July 3 letter to Cal Am Engineering Manager Ian Crooks, Coastal Commission Executive Director Charles Lester writes: 

"Based on your review, we have determined that the water level decrease appears to be caused in part by the pump test. Pursuant to Special Condition #11, Cal-Am must therefore submit an application for a permit amendment to allow restart of the test and is not to conduct further pump testing until receiving an amended permit."

Cal Am may continue "maintenance pumping" of up to 6 hours per week, Lester adds. He notes the project's Hydrological Working Group estimated the pumping may account for 0.2-0.5 feet of the reported 1-plus-foot groundwater level drop, and asks that Cal Am's proposed permit amendment consider other factors including regional and agricultural pumping.

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The 1980 Roald Dahl book The Twits told the story of a married couple who loathed each other so much, they played a series of awful and elaborate pranks on one another.

California-American Water and Marina Coast Water District are acting more and more like The Twits in recent years—locked in what seems like a neverending volley of legal spats, ever since the Regional Desalination Project, on which they were partners, fell apart in 2011. Now Cal Am is pursuing a new desalination project, the Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project, sans Marina Coast involvement.

Just yesterday, Cal Am and the county Water Resources Agency sued Marina Coast and consultant RMC Water and Environment for damages. Basically, they're alleging it was Marina Coast and RMC's fault the project collapsed, so Marina Coast and RMC should pay for all the fallout.

But Marina Coast has been busy with its own revenge, most recently firing off a letter to California Coastal Commission, arguing Cal Am should not be allowed to restart its test slant well—which Cal Am halted last month, as the groundwater level dropped more than 1 foot.

Cal Am (with backing from the project's Hydrological Working Group) argues the groundwater drop had nothing to do with its test well. As the Weekly reported June 25:

“The drop [in groundwater] is not due to the well running,” says Cal Am Vice President of Operations Richard Svindland. If it was, he says, one would expect the groundwater levels to spike upward when the slant well – which pumps 2,000 gallons per minute at a depth of up to 180 feet – stopped running. But Svindland says the site’s monitoring wells show the groundwater levels have remained level, and the recent drop was also seen at depths of 400 feet, where the well was not pumping.

But the June 25 letter—from Marina Coast attorney Chip Wilkins of Remy Moose Manley to Coastal Commission Executive Director Charles Lester—argues the opposite. "[M]ost, if not all, of the 1.6-foot drawdown…is likely due to the test well," it states, among other allegations.

If Lester agrees, Wilkins concludes, Cal Am should not be allowed to restart its test well until the Coastal Commission amends the permit. That would likely gum up the Water Supply Project even more than it's already gummed up, delaying the project longer and putting a desalinated water supply even further out of the Monterey Peninsula's reach.

Cal Am spokesman Kevin Tilden says the test well decision is up to the Coastal Commission. Then he takes a quick shot at Marina Coast: “I think it is an example of Marina Coast leaving no stone unturned when it comes to obstructing projects and spending money on legal fees.”