Does Cal Am secretly want to supply water to Monterey Downs?

Strongly supported by environmentalists, Pure Water Monterey may be a Trojan Horse carrying water for Monterey Downs, the race track and homes development being championed by the city of Seaside. That is because California American Water may be “squeezing” the recycling component out of its proposed water-supply project, as suggested by a Dec. 18 Monterey Herald article titled “Cost estimates could squeeze desal project.”

Proponents of Pure Water Monterey claim that their project will go forward even if it doesn’t become a part of Cal Am’s project. So, if Cal Am’s desal plant supplies all the water the Monterey Peninsula needs, where could the Pure Water Monterey water go? You guessed it: Monterey Downs. Maybe that’s why Monterey County supervisors have become such staunch supporters of Cal Am.

The California Public Utilities Commission recently decided to adopt an agreement between Cal Am and Monterey County that allows the county to exempt the company exclusively from the county’s desal ordinance in return for $1.9 million the county spent on the abandoned regional desalination project. The decision also authorizes Cal Am to recover that money from ratepayers while keeping secret the financial and other documents used to justify the county’s expenditures. Some of those secret documents may involve an agreement by Cal Am to provide water for Monterey Downs.

Also among the secret documents may be some referring to the decision by Cal Am and the county to dump Marina Coast from the regional project. The regional project did not contain the county’s Trojan Horse, and Cal Am could enhance its profits considerably by replacing Marina Coast as the project’s sole owner. The Trojan Horse makes dumping Marina Coast good for the company and the county.

Though good for them, exclusive exemption of Cal Am from the county ordinance prohibiting private desal ownership is not good for ratepayers. Private desal ownership can cost ratepayers about four times as much as public ownership. Neither Nader Agha’s nor David Armanasco’s proposed desal projects, both destined for public ownership, have Cal Am’s exemption, which gives the company an unfair advantage in a competitive market where its competitors can offer much lower prices.

If Cal Am and Monterey County have nothing to hide, why do they need to keep anything secret? That question is at the heart of the petition to the California Supreme Court by Marina Coast to review the California Public Utilities decision adopting the agreement between the company and the county. Water Plus submitted a letter in support of that petition. The CPUC administrative law judge who presided over the CPUC proceeding on the agreement and proposed the CPUC decision recently resigned her position, perhaps a portent of the direction this issue is going.

RON WEITZMAN is president of the Water Ratepayers Association of the Monterey Peninsula, also known as Water Plus.