While the Monterey Peninsula is scrambling to find a water supply project to offset impending Carmel River over-pumping limits, the Salinas Valley appears to have landed a significant untapped supply from the Salinas River.
In a settlement agreement reached between the Monterey County Water Resources Agency and the State Water Resources Control Board, the county gets to keep rights to 135,000 acre-feet per year.
(That's after the state threatened to revoke rights to more than 168,000 acre-feet per year, under a permit first granted over half a century ago.)
What to do with the water?
"We haven't got that far yet," agency Assistant General Manager Rob Johnson says.
Under the terms of the settlement, the agency's regional advisory committee has until July 1 of next year to propose a project, and 2017 to have an environmental impact report.
The water rights can be applied to agricultural or municipal and urban uses.
The water rights to the Salinas River were granted with the intention of curbing the problem of seawater intrusion, which is exacerbated by overpumping groundwater. The water, however, would not necessarily be replacement water for a current supply of groundwater, Johnson says.
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