The CPUC approves current water supply and future demand, clearing the way for desal plant.

After months of delay, the California Public Utilities Commission, the state’s regulator of private utilities, finally voted on Thursday, Aug. 14 on a critical procedural step in California American Water’s quest to build a desalination plant: Establishing the current water supply in Cal Am’s local system, and the projected demand in the year 2050.

Cal Am proposed its numbers, while five other parties—including Monterey Peninsula Water Management District, Marina Coast Water District, Monterey One Water and CPUC’s Office of Ratepayer Advocates—proposed lower future demand.

(In order to proceed with building a conditionally approved desalination plant in Marina, Cal Am must satisfy a number of conditions imposed by the California Coastal Commission, including establishing a supply-and-demand forecast with the CPUC demonstrating the future desalinated water supply would be needed.) 

Last spring, Administrative Law Judges Robert Haga and Jack Chang issued a proposed decision that adopted a projected water demand of 13,732 acre-feet by 2050—the number Cal Am had pushed for—and a current supply of 11,204 acre-feet per year, which was a good bit higher than Cal Am had put forward. 

On Aug. 14, the commissioners voted 4-0 to adopt that proposed decision, sort of. Somewhere along the way, a typo snuck in—1,210 acre-feet was transposed as 1,120 acre-feet—and as a result, the proposed decision, as adopted Thursday, establishes a current supply of 11,114 acre-feet, 90 acre-feet less than the original proposed decision. 

Dave Stoldt, MPWMD’s general manager, says that pretty much sums up the proceeding—he says the district brought the error to the CPUC’s attention, to no avail.

“Who wants to be precise?” Stoldt says sarcastically of the CPUC. 

More than 35 locals called in to comment on the matter, with the vast majority urging the CPUC to revise the forecasted demand numbers down to align with projections from groups other than Cal Am. 

As one commenter noted, in order to reach Cal Am’s projected demand of 13,732 acre-feet by 2050, the population would have to grow 10 percent in the next 25 years while the water demand would have to grow by 50 percent. (The Peninsula's demand in the last year water year dipped below 9,000 acre-feet.)

Cal Am issued a statement following the decision, cheering the outcome. “Our estimates reflect responsible future supply and demand estimates to help ensure we can reliably provide water to meet our customers’ needs, whether it is a time of water abundance or more critically in a time of drought,” President Kevin Tilden said.

The statement concludes by adding that Cal Am expects to break ground by the end of the year on its desal project. 

Besides fulfilling a condition needed for Cal Am to proceed with that project, Stoldt says the vote also provides something else. He intends to bring the approved numbers to the State Water Board to advocate for lifting the cease-and-desist order against Cal Am, because the current supply now adopted by the CPUC—even with the typo—would be enough to show there will be no “trespass” on the Carmel River, which was the impetus for the first cease-and-desist order issued by the state board 30 years ago.