Marina Coast Water District progresses on water supply for former Fort Ord.

Ever since its involvement in a conflict-of-interest scandal that sunk the Regional Desal Project in 2012, the Marina Coast Water District has not had a stellar reputation.

And when looking at the board’s most recent agenda for its July 5 meeting, it doesn’t appear much has changed: Eight items on existing litigation crowd the agenda.

Some of the district’s board members, too, have been known to be intransigent and crass, inspiring former Weekly editor Mary Duan to dub them the “Insane Clown Posse.”

According to Marina Coast board member Tom Moore, the board’s culture has changed for the better.

“With the possibility of an occasional glitch, we have returned to sanity,” he says.

Perhaps as a symptom of that sanity, the district has made important strides recently in making good on its contractual obligation to provide an additional 2,400 acre-feet annually to the water supply for the former Fort Ord.

As part of a collaborative effort between Marina Coast, the Monterey Regional Water Pollution Control Agency and the Fort Ord Reuse Authority, plans are advancing for the district to provide the Fort Ord community with 1,427 acre-feet of recycled water annually for irrigation and landscaping, via a pipeline that will also supply water for the Peninsula’s recycled water project, Pure Water Monterey.

“We’re moving ahead, and not looking at the past so much,” says Marina Coast General Manager Keith Van Der Maaten. “We’re really trying to move things forward and collaborate.”

The most recent sign of that collaboration was July 8, when the FORA board voted to pitch in $6 million toward the $26 million recycled water pipeline through Fort Ord.

As for when, or how, Marina Coast will supply the remaining 973 acre-feet it’s promised to FORA remains an open question.

In the coming months, Marina Coast – in collaboration with FORA and MRWPCA – will commission a study to examine whether the contracted 2,400 acre feet annually of additional water is still an appropriate estimate. It will also look at potential sources for the remaining necessary water, with desalination among them; presently, the district is not pursuing any desal plans.

As for all of the ongoing litigation, and the district’s opposition to Cal Am’s proposed desalination project using slant wells in Marina, Van Der Maaten says it comes with the territory. “Slant wells impact our groundwater,” he says. “We’re protecting our customers.”