Five years after Measure J, a decision on whether to take over Cal Am.

Mark Twain reportedly said, “Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting.” That latter part is all too true in Monterey County, where it applies to pretty much every drop of water, even reclaimed wastewater from salad washing facilities and yes, your toilet. There is fighting about whether to deploy desalination – and at what scale (and cost), and in which location – and there is fighting about how much we pay for water.

But the big fight is an existential fight, and it’s coming to a head on Tuesday, Oct. 10. That’s when the elected board of the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District will vote on whether or not to pursue a public takeover of the private water utility company California American Water’s local system.

Cal Am, which serves some 675,000 customers in California (including on the Monterey Peninsula and in Carmel Valley), is a subsidiary of American Water, which serves 14 million customers in 14 states.

For two decades, there have been efforts underway to take over Cal Am and make it into a public utility. In 2005, Measure W failed by a 63-37 margin, a loss for the group Citizens for Public Water. A citizens’ group called Public Water Now was back in 2014 with Measure O, which voters defeated again, by a 55-45 margin. But public water proponents tried again, and in 2018, voters passed Measure J by a margin of 56-44.

That vote set in motion a years-long analysis by water district officials and consultants. Their charge, per the ballot measure, included: “If and when feasible, to secure and maintain public ownership of all water production, storage and delivery system assets and infrastructure providing services within its territory.” That translates roughly to mean the (public) water district should publicly acquire (private) Cal Am, if feasible.

It’s been five years since voters said yes to Measure J. District officials reached a milestone in April when they offered to pay $448.8 million to Cal Am; the company replied that it’s not for sale.

That leads us to Oct. 10, when the district board will consider the next step – whether or not to seek to take over Cal Am by eminent domain. The culmination of five years’ worth of analysis by the district, at a cost of $2.7 million, is packaged in a 150-page report (with 130 pages of appendices) by General Manager Dave Stoldt. His recommendation to the board: Yes, it’s feasible, cheaper and there is a compelling public good.

A lot of Stoldt’s focus is on cost, with evidence that ratepayers will save money under a publicly owned utility rather than an investor-owned utility. (Cal Am officials have repeatedly disputed cost assumptions.)

But the bigger point is about the public good. “Even if the ‘all-in’ cost of water to the ratepayers of the [Monterey water system] would not be significantly reduced in the short term after the transition to MPWMD ownership, ratepayers should nonetheless be given the opportunity to invest in their future by owning their water system,” according to the report.

Public Water Now campaigned hard for Measure J on the basis that a public utility will save ratepayers money. I’m more interested in the grander ideals connected to public ownership. “MPWMD can be expected to do everything possible to minimize the need for future rate increases,” Stoldt’s report reads, as in: Trust us. More compelling than that is the idea that if trust is violated and promises go unfulfilled, voters can hold their publicly elected board to account. Per the report: “Democracy does not always work, but it has a much better chance of working than self-interested or under-informed decision-making from afar.”

If the board says yes to the takeover – and I expect they will – the district will have to take Cal Am to court, seeking a judge’s determination that eminent domain is justified. If they cross that threshold, there will be a subsequent battle over the fair value of Cal Am.

The hearing takes place at 5:30pm on Tuesday, Oct. 10, and the public is welcome to comment virtually or in person (up to two minutes). Anticipating a crowd, this meeting takes place not in the district’s office, but at the Middlebury Institute’s Irvine Auditorium at 499 Pierce St., Monterey.

Whiskey will not be served, but there should still be plenty of intrigue.

SARA RUBIN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@mcweekly.com