Maybe you’ve heard this one before: California American Water, the utility serving some 100,000 customers on the Monterey Peninsula, is trying to build a desalination plant in Marina to transform brackish water into drinking water. In the decades that this concept has been taking shape, a variety of groups have organized to oppose it, arguing it’s too costly and serves Cal Am investors more than customers turning on the tap.
Sara Rubin here to say (spoiler alert!) I’ve heard this one before, because variations of this confrontation have played out again and again, in local government chambers, in state government offices, in courtrooms and beyond. Tomorrow, June 23, the next chapter will play out at noon in San Francisco where the State Lands Commission is scheduled to take up a proposal for a lease by Cal Am for a portion of the four subsurface slant wells (plus a test well) that would pipe water into the desal facility.
This is a very specific request for a very specific piece of earth under the jurisdiction of the State Lands Commission, responsible for managing some 4 million acres of California that is submerged underwater. In this case, Cal Am is asking to lease the portion of the wells that would poke out beyond the beachfront—about 130 to 200 feet in length—and would be 196 feet under the sea floor. Cal Am would pay $2,282 per year for the lease term, proposed from June 23, 2026 through Jan. 1, 2050.
The staff of the State Lands Commission recommends commissioners approve the lease in a 132-page report. Far more of the report is devoted to what this decision is not about than what it is about.
It is not a ruling on water rights, which is the subject of ongoing litigation filed by the City of Marina. It is not a determination on fairness, noting that the City of Marina would host the plant and wellheads, but is outside of Cal Am’s service area. It is not a decision about the cost of water. It is not a determination on whether the desalination plant is even needed at all.
But opponents of the desal project in Marina at least want members of the State Lands Commission to hear those concerns, and they plan to speak out during the hearing. Marina Mayor Bruce Delgado, City Councilmember Kathy Biala and City Manager Layne Long (joined by their attorney) plan to be at the hearing in San Francisco in person.
Others will join by Zoom from Marina City Hall, including Councilmember Liesbeth Visscher, who has long been active in the group Citizens for Just Water. More than the specifics of the lease proposal—no ground in the State Lands Commission jurisdiction will be disturbed and it will be nearly 200 feet under the ocean floor—Visscher says it’s another chance for the public to weigh in and pursue a relentless mission to scuttle the desal project. “This is a chance for us to get this all stopped,” she says.
Tomorrow’s hearing may well be a replay of arguments we’ve heard before, but given the narrow scope of the State Lands Commission, I think the part where Cal Am gets the green light to continue is likely to replay as well.