State water board rebuffs two Peninsula proposals for a relaxed river cutback order.

It’s just not going to happen in time.

That’s what Monterey Peninsula officials are saying about the state order to cut back Carmel River pumping 70 percent by January 2017. Even in the smoothest scenario – and the reality has been anything but smooth so far – a proposed seawater desalination plant won’t be fully online until early 2019.

California American Water, Monterey Peninsula Water Management District and Monterey Peninsula Regional Water Authority are asking the state water board to cut them some slack on the cutback order.

“I’m floating a trial balloon,” says Carmel Mayor Jason Burnett, who’s on the Peninsula water authority. “This is all in flux.”

In spring 2014, Burnett says, Cal Am (working with the two local agencies) emailed the state water board with a proposal to push back the cutback deadline. The state wasn’t impressed, he says, so Cal Am tried again in the fall. Both times, he says, the state water board staff responded along the lines of, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

State water board authorities declined to provide documentation of those communications in response to a Public Records Act request filed by the Weekly, citing exemptions related to ongoing litigation. A Cal Am spokesperson did not return calls.

In mid-December, Burnett met with state water board Chair Felicia Marcus and key staff in Sacramento. “I was designated to go up and try to reset the conversation,” he says. “We’re all serving the same public here.”

Those common goals, he says: getting the desalination project online ASAP and ending the Peninsula’s dependence on Carmel River water.

“WE’RE GOING TO BE ON A SHORTER LEASH.”

Cal Am has been illegally overpumping the river for 20 years. In 2009, the state issued a cease-and-desist order attached to a strict schedule for pumping cutbacks. At issue is habitat for the federally threatened steelhead trout, which need more water in the river.

“Any modification [to the cutback order] will have to continue to put pressure on the community to deliver,” Burnett says. “We’re going to be on a shorter leash.”

Burnett presented on his efforts at the Jan. 8 Peninsula water authority meeting. Under the proposal going forward, he said, Cal Am would maintain an existing 1,000 acre-foot reduction in river pumping beyond what the state order requires. In the 2016-17 water year, Cal Am would get credit for making additional improvements to river habitat. After that, it would have to hit what Burnett calls “granular milestones” in the water supply project or face more cutbacks.

Peninsula stakeholders have reached broad consensus, Burnett says, pointing to a settlement agreement signed by all 16 parties to the water project proceedings. If the state forces water rationing before a replacement supply comes online, they argue, businesses could be forced to shut down.

But Ron Weitzman, president of local watchdog group WaterPlus, suggests the state order has no real teeth. “The state cannot alter our water supply; only Cal Am can do that,” he writes in a Jan. 11 open letter to the Peninsula water authority. “The state can only penalize Cal Am for non-compliance. Rather than appealing to the state water board, you should rely on Cal Am not to impose the cutback.”