Marina Coast’s resistance to Cal Am’s desal project is not just smoke – it’s a warning shot.

The battle over California American Water’s proposed desalination project in Marina has entered a new phase, and not only does litigation appear more certain than ever, the potential legal arguments of Marina Coast Water District – which opposes the project – are starting to crystallize.

On April 11 and April 17, Citizens for Just Water, an activist group made up of Marina residents, held forums titled “Marina/Fort Ord Water: CODE RED,” wherein a series of speakers outlined their concerns over Cal Am’s project. (A public comment period on the project’s final environmental impact report closed April 19).

Keith Van Der Maaten, general manager for Marina Coast Water District, was among the presenters, and he delivered a compelling – if technical – argument as to how Cal Am’s project would both harm Marina’s groundwater supplies, and result in massive rate increases to Cal Am ratepayers.

Marina Coast’s calculations were extrapolated from testimony by various parties during 2017 hearings before the California Public Utilities Commission. Their numbers show Cal Am’s project would increase the average water bill by $177 per month – at the low end. (Cal Am estimates bills will rise by about $44.)

That number is predicated on the EIR’s projections for how much freshwater – about 7 percent – would be drawn into the desal plant through the proposed slant wells under the beach in Marina, which by state law must be returned to the Salinas Valley Groundwater Basin (Cal Am has an approved agreement to return that water to Castroville – not Marina).

But here’s the rub: Last year, Marina Coast hired a team out of Stanford to conduct an airborne electromagnetics study of the region’s groundwater, which shows, in detail, the level of salinity in its various aquifers. Marina Coast’s board received the report on April 16.

According to that study, there are vast reserves of what Marina Coast calls “good” water – not exactly freshwater by potable or irrigation standards, but close – in the so-called dune sand aquifer, which is where Cal Am’s wells would draw from. Marina Coast’s contention, Van Der Maaten explained, is that “good” water provides a bulwark against further seawater intrusion into deeper aquifers, and that Cal Am’s slant wells would essentially tear the walls down.

That being the case, he argued, would mean an increase in the freshwater proportion of Cal Am’s sourcewater (as opposed to saltwater). Because that water is delivered to Castroville, not Cal Am customers, in Marina Coast’s high-end estimate, that could increase the average Cal Am ratepayer’s bill by $309 per month.

Negotiations between Marina Coast and Cal Am are now at a standstill. On March 21, Marina Coast, along with the city of Marina, California Unions for Reliable Energy and Citizens for Just Water, filed a motion with the CPUC, asking the commission to refer the water rights question – whether or not Cal Am has to the right to pump the water – to the State Water Resources Control Board.

Before the desal project can be considered for approval, they argue in the motion, there must be a determination of whether Cal Am has the right to pump the groundwater.

“Everything Keith said was compelling,” says Dave Stoldt, general manager of the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District. If Van Der Maaten is right in his assertions, Stoldt says, “That’s a real issue.”

But it’s so complicated, Stoldt says, it’s likely to take years to sort out in court. Stoldt adds that Van Der Maaten’s background in San Juan Capistrano, with its dependence on groundwater, makes him credible: “I think he comes from a place where he’s not making this stuff up.”

Cal Am spokesperson Catherine Stedman says the company stands behind the science in the EIR – which was conducted by a third party, and peer-reviewed – and says, “I think any water supply project of this significance is going to have its opponents… I really hope people can separate the politics from the science.”

Cal Am engineer Ian Crooks sums up what’s to come with a twist on an old saying: “Beer is for drinking, water is for fighting.”