Water
Public input sought on water rights issue
The State Water Resources Control Board is accepting public comment on the draft report requested by the California Public Utilities Commission on water right issues connected with Cal Am’s proposed water supply project. At issue is Cal Am’s proposal to suck water from one of two aquifers using slant wells extending offshore into the Monterey Bay. Read more…»
Cal-Am issues RFQ for desal builder
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California American Water issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) today, the first step in selecting the design-build (DB) contractor for the desalination infrastructure component of its Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project which it expects the California Public Utilities Commission to approve later this month. Read more…» |
Thanks, but no thanks: Cal-Am says no to mayors’ JPA requests for parallel permits
By Marge Ann Jameson
At the Jan. 31 meeting of the Monterey Peninsula Regional Water Authority, the area’s mayors voted unanimously to follow the suggestions of Carmel Mayor Jason Burnett and back the Cal-Am proposal before the Public Utilities Commission in hearings about solutions to the area’s water problems. But there were conditions, and now Cal-Am says it won’t be meeting at least one of those conditions. Read more…»
Salinas Valley to Cal-Am: Don’t stick your straw in our bucket
Four agencies voice reservations over Cal-Am plan to draft from Salinas Basin
POSTED 01/01/13
California American Water, water purveyor for a great part of the Peninsula, has submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission draft plans for a desalination plant in north Marina, which would include extracting feedwater for the plant from the Salinas Basin. As presented, Cal-Am’s plan (dubbed the Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project or MPWSP) would result in the lowering of groundwater levels within a radius of about two miles from the Marina plant, an area which is already experiencing seawater intrusion. The “shallow aquifer,” they state, is their preferred source but they want to retain the right to use water from the deeper aquifer, referred to as the 180-foot aquifer. Read more…»
Lower interest rates make public water more affordable
The small town of Felton, an unincorporated area in Santa Cruz County, saw their original water purveyor, Citizens Utilities, purchased by Cal Am a decade or so ago. Read more…»
Confusion on the desal front
By Marge Ann Jameson for the 12/28/12 edition
Recent articles in the local press have carried conflicting accounts of what is occurring at the Moss Landing Commercial Park. Did Nader Agha sell out his interest or did he take on a partner? Read more…»
Judge reaffirms MPWMD position on additional water fixtures
By Marge Ann Jameson for the 12/18/12 edition
A Pebble Beach couple who sued the Monterey Peninsula Water Management district over water restrictions, fees, and home inspections lost their case in court when Superior Court Judge Lydia Villarreal ruled in favor of the water district as to all counts. Read more…»
Small Water Projects for Pacific Grove
The State Water Resources Control Board has imposed, through a cease-and-desist order, a January 1, 2017 limit on CalAm’s ability to draw water from the Carmel River. Three water desalination projects have been proposed to replace that water. The City is working, both independently as well as part of the six-city joint powers authority, to bring desalination on line before the “water cliff” is imposed by the water board in four years from now.
Unfortunately, the independent analysis of the three desalination project proposals recently completed for the six-city Water Authority has cast serious doubt that any of the desal projects can be completed on time. (This study is available on the Water Authority’s web site at http://www.mprwa.org/). Unless an extension can be obtained, that would mean severe water reduction limitations would be imposed. The exact allocation of those limitations has yet to be determined, but would seriously impact hotels, restaurants, and other drivers of our local economy. In addition, use of potable water to irrigate the City’s Golf Links, parks, and El Carmelo Cemetery, as well as landscaping other public facilities such as the City’s and Pacific Grove Unified School District’s ball fields would almost certainly be curtailed. Read more…»
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