Just before 10am on Saturday, March 1, about a dozen people start trickling into a building at UC MBEST, a research facility operated by UC Santa Cruz just northeast of Imjin Parkway at Reservation Road.
They are attending an outreach session conducted by EnviroGage, an environmental consulting firm, as to how to spend $3 million to improve access or add other amenities within the city’s Coastal Zone.
Just where that $3 million comes from, and whether it will ever be spent, requires some explanation. In November 2022, when the California Coastal Commission approved Cal Am’s desalination project in Marina amid much controversy, the approval came with a slew of conditions, some of which have to be completed prior to construction.
Among those conditions was that Cal Am pay $3 million for a project that would benefit Marina residents, and pay for a third-party consultant to engage with residents to figure out how they want to spend it.
(The condition was among those amended on the fly during the Coastal Commission’s meeting in Salinas, where the sum rose from $1 million to $3 million, in addition to requiring Cal Am to pay for a City of Marina employee for 10 years to see the project through.)
The March 1 meeting is the first of five in-person meetings EnviroGage will host through April 2. (The complete schedule can be viewed at marinavoices.com, a website the firm created as part of the process.)
The first meeting quickly went off the rails. As more attendees filled the large conference room, it fully devolved into a venting session with claims of Cal Am stealing Marina’s water. There was a lack of clarity about what the parameters of the project could be, as suggestions ranged from fixing potholes, building an animal shelter, to signs near the beach to commemorate the residents who fought against Cal Am.
When Marina City Councilmember Kathy Biala arrived, she passed out copies of a Feb. 14 city report indicating Marina is facilitating its own outreach, as EnviroGage is “paid for by Cal Am, and reports directly to Cal Am.” (The report notes Cal Am will pay EnviroGage around $195,000, while the city will spend up to $50,000 on consultants.)
Ultimately, both will submit a plan to the Coastal Commission, and the agency’s executive director will look at both and decide how to move forward.
But whether or not the $3 million project gets built is contingent on the fate of the desal project: Tom Luster, a senior scientist with the Coastal Commission, says the more complex conditions Cal Am must meet regarding groundwater monitoring are in a holding pattern, awaiting a ruling from the State Water Board that is expected this spring regarding water rights on the proposed project site, the former Cemex sand mine.
Cal Am remains bullish about meeting conditions, saying in a statement that the company expects to begin construction of the desal project by year’s end.