David Schmalz here. Having reported on water on the Monterey Peninsula for the better part of the last decade, it’s remarkable to reflect on what has transpired in that time: A political movement for public water, a political movement to stop Cal Am’s desal project in Marina, an innovative recycled water project and its expansion, and a conditional approval for Cal Am’s desal project, which is still being litigated on multiple fronts.
The Peninsula’s water demand has steadily dropped over that time while its legal supply continued to increase. Cal Am was finally able to stop its illegal overpumping of the Carmel River, and with the completion of Pure Water Monterey’s expansion coming later this year, the Peninsula’s annual supply will be over 12,000 acre-feet, according to the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District’s estimates.
How much supply there is, and how much demand there will be by 2050, are among the things still being debated regarding Cal Am’s desal project (per a condition of approval from the California Coastal Commission). It was finally scheduled to be voted upon by the California Public Utilities Commission at a meeting in Sacramento tomorrow, June 12. Late yesterday, Commissioner Darcie Houck, who’s presiding over the proceeding, pulled it from tomorrow’s meeting and rescheduled it for June 26.
To circle back to what the CPUC is being asked to approve regarding the supply and demand: On May 9, after about a year of deliberation and analysis of public testimony, CPUC Administrative Law Judges Robert Haga and Jack Chang issued a proposed decision that largely sides with Cal Am’s estimates, and that puts the annual water demand for Cal Am’s service area at 13,732 acre-feet in 2050 and the current supply at 11,204 acre-feet.
The Peninsula’s demand in the last water year was shy of 9,000 acre-feet. If our current demand is at least 2,000 acre-feet less than our current supply, why build a desal project?
The judges, in their proposed decision, believe the Peninsula’s annual water demand will grow nearly 5,000 acre-feet—from just under 9,000 acre-feet now—in the next 25 years. Plenty of observers are skeptical about that growth projection, including Public Water Now Managing Director Melodie Chrislock, who submitted testimony asking the commission to adopt a lower projected demand figure of 10,500 acre-feet.
“Growth happens slowly over decades,” she wrote. “It is not realistic to expect that 49,400 people or 52-percent more population will be added to the 95,000 that currently live and work on the Peninsula in the next 25 years. This simple observation should serve as a reality check on Cal Am’s inflated 2050 demand forecast.”
Watchdog groups are encouraging people to call in to the CPUC’s meeting tomorrow—even though considering supply and demand has been moved to June 26—to speak up during general public comment to oppose the proposed decision’s estimates (English: 1-800-857-1917, passcode: 9899501#; Spanish: 1-800-857-1917, passcode: 3799627#, queue starts at 10:30am).
The whole purpose behind these efforts has been to lift the state’s cease-and-desist order that prohibits Cal Am from setting new water meters. But it’s the State Water Control Board that decides that, and maybe the supply and demand proceeding will impact that somehow.
Who knows. I’ll just say, that as someone who’s covered this for so long, the layers of bureaucracy, and all the twists and turns, don’t become less confusing over time, and it’s perhaps even the opposite.