In February of 2020, Monterey One Water’s advanced wastewater recycling project, Pure Water Monterey, became operational after seven years of planning, delivering 3,500 acre-feet of water annually to the Monterey Peninsula’s Cal Am service area. That is more than a third of the region’s annual water demand, reducing dependence on the historically overpumped Carmel River.
In 2023, an expansion of that project broke ground that will add another 2,250 acre-feet of recycled water to the annual portfolio; it’s expected to come online in fall 2025.
With that date approaching, Dave Stoldt, general manager of the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District, has been making the rounds to various city councils apprising them of the proposed allocations each municipality will initially get out of the 2,250 acre-feet of water from the expansion of Pure Water Monterey.
The district’s methodology relies on state-mandated housing requirements in each jurisdiction, as well as population growth, based on numbers from the Association of Monterey Bay Governments.
This all comes as the region tries to claw its way out of the existing housing crisis, and while there’s still a state-imposed cease-and-desist order in place in the Cal Am service area that precludes setting new water meters. (The district is going to advocate in the coming year for the State Water Board to lift that order, but that remains a wild card.)
Meanwhile, the allocations from Pure Water Monterey matter greatly. “You can talk to any jurisdiction,” Stoldt says, “and they’ll say they need it all.”
How much they in fact need will be adjusted if and when they proceed with projects that would use that water.
While the district plans to ultimately allocate water to jurisdictions based on need – their rate of the uptake of the new water supply – it will initially allocate one-third of the water it thinks each jurisdiction might require to meet its housing goals. MPWMD proposes initially allocating 141 acre-feet to Monterey, for example, and 72 acre-feet to unincorporated areas. (An exception is Del Rey Oaks, which will get nearly 50 percent of its allocation right away – 6 acre-feet – after receiving zero in the first allocation pre-expansion.)
As long as the cease-and-desist order remains in place, that water can only be used to intensify water use on existing water meters – in Del Rey Oaks, for example, a resident could build an accessory dwelling unit, which is currently not possible for lack of water credits. But the meter is there to do so, when water is available.
The demand for water in MPWMD’s jurisdiction, from Oct. 1, 2023 to Sept 30. 2024, was 8,972 acre-feet, the lowest in nearly 50 years. When the PWM expansion comes online next year, the annual supply portfolio will exceed 12,000 acre-feet for the year.
Depending on uptake, adjustments can be made, and numbers allocated to each jurisdiction can go up. The MPWMD board is scheduled to consider whether to approve the proposed allocations on Monday, Dec. 16.
Stoldt is also optimistic the new supply will persuade the State Water Board to lift the cease-and-desist order. “We want them to be ready to act,” he says. “The water is there.”