Does a recycled water facility expansion mean it’s ‘Bye Bye Bye’ to the state’s cease-and-desist order?

David Schmalz here. I’ve been to a good number of groundbreaking and ribbon-cutting events over the years, and generally speaking they aren’t exactly memorable—everyone gets together to celebrate the work they’ve done, say a bunch of nice things about each other, have some food and drink and then go on about their day. 

Yesterday, the ribbon cutting for Monterey One Water’s Pure Water Monterey expansion was different. It felt historic. 

And it was, because the hope is that this ribbon cutting can facilitate a hundred more ribbon cuttings, that it will finally bring the Peninsula’s water supply to the point where the State Water Board takes the handcuffs off and lifts the cease-and-desist order it laid down on Cal Am in 2009 for the company’s illegal, decades-long overpumping of the Carmel River. 

For over 15 years now, that order has precluded Cal Am from setting new water meters—or upsizing existing ones—which has for the most part prevented the construction of any new housing on the Peninsula at the time the housing crisis deepens statewide, even in places that have water. 

Currently, Pure Water Monterey—the first advanced water purification facility for potable reuse in Northern California—is purifying 5 million gallons per day, and next Thursday, Oct. 9, M1W will be seeking a permit from the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board at the agency’s meeting in Santa Barbara, and assuming that goes as expected, the expanded portion of the facility will be operating a week from today. 

When that happens, it will add another 2,250 acre-feet annually to the supply of Cal Am’s Monterey system—currently, Pure Water Monterey is adding 3,500 acre-feet annually, so next Friday, that number will theoretically jump to 5,750 acre-feet annually, more than half of the Peninsula’s water demand which last year dipped below 9,000 acre-feet. However, Monterey Peninsula Water Management General Manager Dave Stoldt told me yesterday he expects the demand to climb slightly in the 2025 water year, which ended Sept. 30 and is still being calculated. 

The important takeaway is this: Starting next Friday, there is going to be considerably more supply in Cal Am’s Monterey system than demand—there is no longer water poverty, if you will, except for what is now an outdated order from the State Water Board. Convincing regulators to lift that order is the immediate work ahead, but at the ribbon cutting yesterday, that felt like it was fait accompli, there was a buoyancy to the mood that this was it, the dragon had been slayed. 

For Paul Sciuto, M1W’s general manager, it was the culmination of the work he and former general manager Keith Israel have put in. Sciuto’s been talking about the concept of “one water”—the foundational principle for recycled water—since the moment he arrived in 2015. 

But even Sciuto had a surprise in store when the slate of speakers got to Monterey Mayor Tyller Williamson, chair of the M1W board, who said he had been texting with Sciuto’s daughter recently while they separately went to a Backstreet Boys show, as Sciuto sat on the stage looking puzzled and mildly, humorously concerned.

Then suddenly a handful of attendees sprung up from their seats on the inside of an aisle and broke into a flash mob dancing to NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye,” and everyone was smiling like, “What is happening right now?”

The song played for its full three-plus minutes—Williamson was left to stand awkwardly onstage laughing the whole time, but everyone was laughing with him, at one point Williamson cheered, “Bye bye bye to the CDO!”

Right as I was leaving the event, as everyone was grabbing lunch and a seat at a table, I checked in briefly with Monterey Assistant City Manager Nat Rojanasathira to see what he thought about it all. He told me without hesitation it was one of the best ribbon-cutting events he’d ever been to.

It was the best I've been to. Despite all that’s going on in the world, everyone seemed to be in the highest spirits, and I think in part because it’s been a long, tough road to get here, all the meetings, the late nights, the unending frustration. 

And finally, the water is wet and freedom feels like it’s just around the corner.