In its ongoing quest for a new Monterey Peninsula water supply, California American Water is pulling 200-foot tubes out of the Moss Landing beach. The goal: a clear blueprint of the underground architecture – key to a water-rights hurdle in Cal Am’s desalination project.
Only three of 14 bore holes have been drilled so far. But early results confirm what Cal Am had expected: a shallow aquifer (containing seawater) for the first 140 feet, then a 40-foot solid layer called an aquitard, and finally a lower aquifer (containing fresh groundwater).
If Cal Am can stay out of that lower aquifer, it may be able to soothe Salinas Valley farmers’ concerns that the desal project could draw from their water supply.
“Now we know [the aquifers are] separated,” Cal Am spokeswoman Catherine Bowie says. “The preliminary results are encouraging, but we still have a ways to go in terms of completing the testing.”
The timing is tricky. Cal Am hopes to construct its test intake well by February, because it’s only allowed to draw sample water through March to protect the endangered snowy plover. Otherwise it’ll have to wait until October 2014.
But before it can break ground at the Cemex property, Cal Am must release an initial environmental study, followed by public comment and approval from the Marina Planning Commission and the California Coastal Commission.
“The stars need to line up,” Cal Am Engineering Manager Ian Crooks told the Monterey Peninsula Regional Water Authority’s Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) Oct. 7.
“I’m concerned [a delay] could have impacts on the overall schedule of the project,” Carmel Mayor and TAC Chair Jason Burnett says. “This, for me, is a critical pass.”
[Editor's note: The quotes from Bowie, Crooks and Burnett were not included in a shorter version of this story that appeared in print Oct. 10.]