A community meeting paid for by Cal Am draws angry residents upset over a desal plan.

Pam Marino here. Like many of you, when I get out of bed in the morning I’m thirsty, so I turn on the tap and help myself to a glass of water. I don’t really think about the water I’m drinking, that is until it’s time to pay the water bill. That’s when I remember that those of us on the Monterey Peninsula pay some of the highest prices for water in the country through the private company Cal Am.

The sour feelings Cal Am customers have translated into a win for Measure J in 2018 by a 56-44 margin, with a goal of a public buyout of Cal Am by the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District, which seven years later is still struggling to come to fruition.

In Marina, the bad feelings run just a little deeper, after the California Coastal Commission approved, in November 2022, a Cal Am plan to build a desalination plant in Marina, which the city and many residents believe will siphon off precious water found underneath them. 

As my colleague David Schmalz explains in his news story “Diss Engaged” in this week’s paper, commissioners attached a number of conditions to the approval, including requiring Cal Am to spend $3 million on projects benefiting the city. The company was also required to hire a third-party consultant to engage residents in deciding how to spend the money.

It’s not surprising then that the first community meeting hosted by the consultant, EnviroGage, “quickly went off the rails,” as Schmalz reported. I encourage you to read the story to see how the meeting unfolded. There are more meetings scheduled through April.

Cal Am still has some hurdles to clear before it can build the desal plant, but company officials remain optimistic they’ll break ground later this year, Schmalz reports.

Meanwhile our bills will continue to increase, and as hard as we try to conserve to keep them down, we will always need water to quench our thirst.