Officials wonder where the water will come from as they await Monterey Downs report.

A long-awaited update on Monterey Downs – a proposed residential and horse park development in the former Fort Ord – was delivered to the Seaside City Council on March 20, and one major question remains: Where’s the water?

It was first posed by Councilman David Pacheco to Teri Wissler Adam, Seaside’s contract project manager for the development: “In the final report, are we going to get an answer on if there’s enough water to do this?” Pacheco asked.

“That’s a good question,” she said.

The Monterey Downs environmental impact report (EIR) being prepared by RBF Consulting was meant to be finished by this winter. That process has been slowed by the resignations of the report’s project manager and assistant project manager in late December. The draft EIR was made public in November; Wissler Adam calls it about 75-percent complete.

Some of what was missing raised eyebrows, in particular the section dealing with water supply: “The proposed project would not result in adverse impacts to the amount of available groundwater available (or) degrade groundwater quality… [Note: Groundwater section needs to be completed.]”

But the facts read different. All Fort Ord water is supplied by Marina Coast Water District, which allocates set amounts of water to each entity with land holdings on the former Fort Ord. Seaside’s allocation is 1,012.5 acre-feet per year (AFY), 786 of which have already been committed to other projects. The proposed Monterey Downs project calls for 852.5 AFY.

“It’s put them in a conundrum,” says Michael Salerno, spokesman for Keep Fort Ord Wild, a community coalition trying to preserve Fort Ord lands. Salerno also sees problems with the amount of groundwater – 6,600 AFY – that Marina Coast allocated to Fort Ord. “This is assuming that the 6,600 acre-feet is real water, not just paper water,” he says. That number was taken from the peak amount used by the Army in 1984. “It’s never proven to be a sustainable yield.”

Much of the Downs site sits on county land. Seaside hopes to annex it, but even if Seaside gets all of the county’s remaining uncommitted groundwater, the project is still short 470 acre-feet annually.

According to Marina Coast Interim General Manager Brian Lee, that shortfall could be closed by recycled water, but only if Marina Coast can fill in a sizable pipeline gap. That would cost millions of dollars it doesn’t have.

If a developer were to put up the cash, Lee says digging could start within months.