UPDATED: MPWMD asks state to allow new water meters on the Monterey Peninsula.

UPDATE — Oct. 21, 11am: The MPWMD board voted unanimously Oct. 20 to ask the State Water Board to modify the state's cease-and-desist order against Cal Am to allow for new service connections. 

Before they took the vote, MPWMD General Manager Dave Stoldt told the board, "This is a window of opportunity for the community to ease water restrictions in favor of housing and jobs."

Cal Am, in a statement provided to the Weekly Oct. 17 about the district's pending ask, "is eager to see water use restrictions lifted in a manner that helps ensure the protection of the Carmel River and its wildlife and protects our customers from fines from the State Water Resources Control Board if we exceed our legal pumping limits from the Carmel River. 

"Our ongoing analysis of the District’s proposal and further discussions about the terms of the CDO with state regulators will be focused on ensuring that current and future customers can count on water supply reliability and protection of the environment."

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(Oct. 17, 4:45pm) 

Freedom is the agenda when the directors of the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District meet at 6pm Monday, Oct. 20, as the board is poised to consider finally taking the historic step of applying to the State Water Resources Control Board to modify its cease-and-desist order against Cal Am, which has precluded the private utility from setting new water meters since 2009. 

For 16 years now, that order has weighed down the Peninsula like an anchor, halting nearly all construction of new homes or businesses. But now, with the expansion of Pure Water Monterey complete and online as of Oct. 10, the Peninsula’s current supply of water is more than 11,000 acre-feet annually (as approved by the CPUC in August), while in the past water year that ended Sept. 30, the Peninsula’s demand was 9,092 acre-feet of water. That’s up slightly from 8,972 last year, but brings the 5-year average down to 9,245 acre feet of demand. 

In his report to the board, MPWMD General Manager Dave Stoldt writes that with the recent CPUC decision and PWM expansion, “there is no imminent threat of Cal-Am exceeding its legal water rights on the [Carmel River].” 

Cal Am has been within its legal pumping right on the Carmel—3,376 acre-feet annually—since Monterey One Water’s Pure Water Monterey first phase went online in 2021, bolstering the Peninsula’s legal supply. And with the PWM expansion adding another 2,250 acre-feet annually to the tank, there is now a considerable excess of supply over demand—a more than 2,000 acre-feet difference. 

That being the case, the MPWMD board will consider Oct. 20 whether to take the historic step of asking the State Water Board to modify—not lift—its cease-and-desist order against Cal Am. 

The proposed modification, if approved by the board, would rescind the prohibition on new water meters, maintain the current quarterly and annual reporting to the SWRCB and to create a new water supply and demand regime that would create triggers that would allow the SWRCB’s deputy director of water rights to reinstate the existing prohibition. 

If the board approves sending in the application, Stoldt says, it will start the official clock on the process, meaning all future communications with State Water Board officials regarding the matter must be done through official channels. 

The application for the modification should get to State Water Board officials no later than Friday, Stoldt says, and that the timing is ideal because state officials are still setting their schedules for 2026.

Stoldt says the district has been meeting with State Water Board officials this past spring and summer laying the groundwork for the application, so the case has been made. After next Monday, assuming the MPWMD board approves the application, it will be yet another round of waiting, but hopefully, this wait will be the last.