Marina Coast gets gangbusters for its own desal plant to supply Fort Ord.

Peter Le shivers in the manure-scented morning breeze. He peers through a chain-link fence separating Monterey Regional Water Pollution Control Agency’s wastewater treatment plant from Armstrong Ranch. On the other side is a parcel owned by Marina Coast Water District, which Le represents as a board member.

Five years ago, the Armstrong property was the site of the now-defunct Regional Desalination Project, in which Marina Coast was a partner. Now Le envisions a different desal project, run by Marina Coast alone, setting up here in as little as three years.

The idea joins a crowded field of desal proposals along a short stretch of Highway 1: California American Water’s Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project, which would produce up to 9,750 acre-feet of desal water per year in north Marina; DeepWater Desal’s 10,000-acre-foot proposal for Moss Landing; and the 13,400-acre-foot People’s Project, also in Moss Landing.

Le speaks softly, in English that is not his native language. It takes a moment to realize he’s using fighting words.

Le, an engineer, has single-handedly flipped the five-member Marina Coast board’s politics twice. After his election in late 2012, he created a new majority for the pro-conservation voting bloc with directors Tom Moore and Jan Shriner. But recently, Le’s been voting with directors Howard Gustafson and Bill Lee, swinging the majority back.

That shift – coupled with the January replacement of Interim General Manager Brian Lee with desal advocate Bill Kocher – has changed the agency’s stance on desal from reluctant to aggressive.

The proposed Marina Coast plant would produce 2,700 acre-feet of water per year, Le says. Another 150 acres of the Armstrong parcel could host enough solar panels, he says, to both power the desal plant and sell back to the grid.

According to a Marina Coast PowerPoint on the proposed project, vertical intake wells “close to the beach” would draw brackish water and pump it to the desal plant on Armstrong Ranch.

Marina Coast already has groundwater rights and existing pipeline to suport the project, Le says.

To move forward, Le hopes the Fort Ord Reuse Authority will change its policy on Fort Ord water allocations to “first come, first served”: Instead of divvying up water credits based on long-term planning, FORA would award them to the developments built first.

Under a 1998 agreement, FORA contracts with Marina Coast to provide water and wastewater services to the former Fort Ord. But FORA Executive Director Michael Houlemard balks at Le’s proposed approach.

“That sounds like an Oklahoma land rush,” he says. “[Marina Coast] has a reputation in the past of being a little dysfunctional. In terms of the interest of the community, we need to be a little more political.”

This Friday, March 13, the FORA board – including Le, who recently replaced Moore in Marina Coast’s seat – considers a motion to endorse the planning process and early designs for Marina Coast’s desal proposal.

FORA Assistant Executive Officer Steve Endsley stresses that’s only a starting point. “What is the [Fort Ord] water augmentation project going to be?” he asks. “You can’t get there without some kind of planning process.”