A recent exchange of letters between a public utility and a state water authority highlights the continued stalemate in the effort by the Monterey Peninsula to develop a new water supply and end the overdrafting of the Carmel River.
On Oct. 21, California American Water sent a letter to the State Water Resources Control Board to note it had missed a deadline of Sept. 30 to advance construction on a proposed desalination plant just outside the city of Marina. Per a 2016 water board order, the missed deadline carries a penalty, requiring an immediate reduction of 1,000 acre-feet in pumping from the Carmel River.
Cal Am said it could comply with the 1,000 acre-foot cutback while meeting all the current demand for water. Despite the delays, the desal proposal remains the most viable new water supply, according to Cal Am’s letter.
The letter also said the delay in construction of the desal facility was caused by factors beyond the company’s control and pointed to numerous court proceedings and permitting processes that are underway but stalled.
An alliance of local citizens and elected officials are opposing the desal plan on economic, political and environmental grounds. They say that the region’s demand and the state protection order for the Carmel River could be satisfied by expanding a new water reclamation project, known as Pure Water Monterey.
Among the proponents of the Pure Water Monterey expansion idea is the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District. In its letter, Cal Am placed much of the blame for the delay on the MPWMD.
“This is a very short-sighted and dangerous game that the MPWMD is playing with the Monterey Peninsula’s water supplies and resources,” the letter says and rehashes a litany of criticisms.
(MPWMD General Manager Dave Stoldt rejects the Cal Am letter saying that its claims have been repeatedly debunked.)
A state water board response to the Cal Am letter arrived Nov. 17. In it, executive director Eileen Sobeck acknowledged Cal Am’s efforts to find a solution and urged the company to “engage collaboratively” and “resolve disputes” in search of short- and long-term water supply options for the Peninsula.
“Affordable housing and economic development within the Monterey Peninsula area are important both to the local communities and to the State of California,” Sobeck wrote. However, these shared goals cannot be achieved at the continued expense of violations of state water law and degradation of the state’s natural resources held in public trust for all current and future Californians.”