When the sewage utility and the Peninsula’s water management agency began negotiating in late April with California American Water about buying water through the recently approved recycled water project expansion, some local officials felt a deal could be reached by May. Then June. Then July.
Those close to the negotiations are still singing a familiar refrain: a deal is imminent. However, the two clauses that have stalled negotiations – terms proposed by Cal Am – remain unsettled. Both focus on Cal Am’s desalination plant, a contentious project the utility proposed as a solution to the Peninsula’s water woes but has since stalled out in bureaucratic limbo and taken a back seat to the expansion of the Pure Water Monterey recycled water project.
Cal Am wants to recover sunk costs from its desalination plant effort and it wants a commitment that sewage utility Monterey One Water and the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District will not object. Cal Am spokesperson Catherine Stedman says the utility invested millions into the desal effort based on initial support from the agencies. MPWMD General Manager David Stoldt says he agrees Cal Am should recover some costs but the dispute is over the timeline – when did the agencies pull support and how much money did Cal Am continue to invest after.
Cal Am also wants the agencies to commit to supporting the desal project as the next water solution if the Pure Water Monterey expansion fails to deliver the expected 2,250 acre-feet of water per year to the local water system for three consecutive years. Stoldt says, in that event, the MPWMD board of directors would support Cal Am in pursuing an alternative water source but it does not want the desal plant.
“If the recycled water project fails to deliver, the community will be facing a water crisis,” Stedman says. “No matter what new ideas are floated at this time, our [desal] project will be the furthest along… and time will be of the essence.”
(1) comment
CalAm has not only sunk millions into this project; they have sunk over $150 million. That is pretty impressive for a project that was supposed to run under $300 million before finance costs. What they have to show for it so far is the "Monterey Pipeline" which tore up city streets for over two years, running from Seaside to Pacific Grove, costing $50 million (original budget was $39 million) and is lightly used since there is no desal product water and likely never will be. They also installed a "test well" out at the Cemex site in Marina for the intake portion, which costs nearly $20 million (original budget $4 million)
There are many who believe that Cal Am realizes it will never get the desal plant built because of the bureaucratic obstacles. It is a nightmare for creating seawater intrusion and spoiling the aquifers near Cemex, and it is essentially putting the straw in within Marina's water supplies. Not to mention the heavy carbon footprint because desalination is so energy intensive.
Yet Cal Am continues to proceed in hopes they can "recover costs" which includes some profit. Their strategy is to run up the costs as high as possible, and come out ahead even if the project fails. They have done it twice before already on previously failed projects.
I applaud MPWMD and Monterey One Water for standing firm, and not giving in to Cal Am's shenanigans.
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