The drip continues in MPWMD's efforts to buyout Cal Am.

It’s been an eventful few months for the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District in its yearslong effort to potentially buyout the local water system of California American Water, an investor-owned utility.  

On Oct. 10, the MPWMD board passed a “resolution of necessity” to initiate a buyout of Cal Am’s local system, a crucial step in order to begin an eminent domain trial in Monterey County Superior Court. (This comes after local voters, in 2018, passed Measure J—which compelled the district to buyout Cal Am’s system if feasible—by a 56-44 margin.)

On Friday, Dec. 15, MPWMD filed its eminent domain complaint, beginning a process in Monterey County Superior Court that will culminate in one or potentially two trials: the first will determine whether the threshold for an eminent domain takeover of Cal Am’s local system meets the legal threshold for necessity. If so, a second trial will determine the value of the system. 

One thing that could potentially be adjudicated in the first trial is whether the district has what’s called the “latent powers” to be a retail provider of water, a power the district has long argued it already possesses. 

But in late 2021, when the district applied to the Local Agency Formation Commission of Monterey County to annex properties to enact the takeover, it also asked the LAFCO board to formally activate the district’s “latent powers” so as to save the cost of litigating that matter in the eminent domain trial. But at a Dec. 6, 2021 meeting the majority of the LAFCO board voted against granting that power, despite LAFCO staff’s recommendation to grant the district that power. 

MPWMD later sued LAFCO in April 2022 to have that decision vacated, as the stated reasons of the board members were largely not supported by the evidence in front of them. Monterey County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wills issued an intended ruling in that case Oct. 25, and one Dec. 11, that same ruling was made final but added a few notable things: One, LAFCO must pay MPWMD’s legal fees for the case, and two, that LAFCO must reconsider rehearing the matter if the district requests to do so—previously, LAFCO denied a request for another hearing on the matter. 

MPWMD General Manager Dave Stoldt says the district isn’t yet sure if it will request another hearing, or see the matter decided by a judge. He says the board will meet in January to discuss next steps in the matter.