Opposing views of Monterey Peninsula water supply filed with regulator
SACRAMENTO – Roughly a half-dozen agencies, governments and a nonprofit group have filed briefs with a state regulator that could determine whether or not California American Water Co. gets the OK for its years-long effort to build a desalination plant on the Monterey Peninsula.
The issue comes down to whether the peninsula will have enough water to meet the demand for the next three decades by tapping into recycled water, or whether a desal plant will be needed. Administrative Law Judge Robert Haga will examine the April 30 filings, render an up-or-down proposed ruling and ship it off to the five-member California Public Utilities Commission to vote on.
In late 2022, Cal Am won the hearts of the California Coastal Commission when the 12-member appointed body approved a permit allowing Cal Am, an investor-owned utility, to move forward with the desal plant in Marina. But for Cal Am, it was a double-edged sword.
In the Coastal Commission’s permit approval, despite a public outcry that ran roughly 4-1 against the desal project, the commission laid down some 20 conditions that need to be met before the first Cal Am shovel hits the ground. Many water watchers say some of the conditions are so stringent they would be extremely difficult for Cal Am to meet. Among them, Cal Am must receive approval by the CPUC.
Tuesday’s filings were arguments meant to persuade the judge on the overriding question of supply and demand. Six of the seven filings contain evidence that Monterey One Water’s Pure Water Monterey Expansion recycling project will produce more than enough water to meet the demand for the next three decades. The one counter filing was Cal Am’s.
Remleh Scherzinger, the general manager of Marina Coast Water District, one of the parties in the CPUC proceedings, said that supply and demand estimates by his agency, the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District, Pure Water Monterey and other public agencies, are fairly in alignment. The one outlier is Cal Am.
“Monterey Coast’s expert witness, Peter Mayer, is a nationally recognized authority on water demand management, Scherzinger said Thursday in an email interview. “He has consulted extensively for the California Department of Water Resources and the Metropolitan Water District” in Los Angeles.
What Mayer’s and experts from other agencies’ data indicate is that not only will there be enough water from recycling until 2050, there will be some left over.
“Marina Coast believes the evidence shows that when the Pure Water Monterey Expansion supply is added, there will be enough permanent supply for Cal Am to lift its (state imposed) moratorium, accomplish its Seaside Basin payback and continue meeting customer demands with at least a 10% supply cushion through 2050 without the need for any additional supply source,” Scherzinger said.
Cal Am in its filing also stated it based its estimated demand for the Monterey service area on expert analyses, state standards and requirements and “judicious assessments of the future needs of the Monterey customers, businesses and community.”
By the numbers, Cal Am says the Peninsula will need roughly 14,800 acre-feet of water by 2050 to meet the demand. One acre foot equals 325,851 gallons. But the California Public Advocate’s Office, a state agency independent of the CPUC, which is charged with looking out for ratepayers, puts the annual 2050 demand at 10,254 acre-feet. Analysis by the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District has a nearly identical estimate for 2050 of 10,559 acre-feet.
Why the discrepancy? The Peninsula water district says the answer is simple: “Cal Am grossly overstates demand,” the district said in its filing with the CPUC. Dave Stoldt, the general manager of the Peninsula district has explained that in order for Cal Am to reach its demand figures, it had to double and even triple count population.
For example, Cal Am includes “lots of record” along with estimated population growth, according the Peninsula water district’s filing. In Stoldt’s view, Cal Am is counting the vacant lots and the people who would live on that lot. “People use water, not lots,” Stoldt has said.
Cal Am isn’t budging on its estimates.
“The examples provided by those opposed to the desalination project are looking only in the near term and not looking responsibly into the future demand needs of the Monterey Peninsula,” said Josh Stratton, the manager of external affairs for Cal Am, on Friday.
In recent years demand has been retreating because of stepped up conservation efforts and possibly the high cost of Cal Am water, which is one of the highest in the country. Melodie Chrislock, the managing director of Public Water Now, which in 2018 launched the successful Measure J that called for the Peninsula water district to acquire the Monterey Peninsula assets of Cal Am.
“The Monterey Peninsula is using 22% less water than we did 10 years ago,” Chrislock said on Friday, alluding to the high cost of Cal Am water. “Anyone who pays a Cal Am bill knows why. But Cal Am is telling the CPUC that its Peninsula customers will simply start using more water, no matter what the cost. Has Cal Am really missed a basic principle of economics – when the price goes up, demand goes down – or is lying to the CPUC the new norm for Cal Am?”
Public Water Now has filed its own brief with the CPUC.
The Public Advocate’s Office in its 20-page brief said Cal Am has stated two different demand estimates – one for an application with the CPUC to increase rates, called a General Rate Case, and a different demand estimate in the supply and demand forecasts that were filed, a difference of 18%.
“Cal Am has not provided a satisfactory explanation for why its demand forecasts in the current application are approximately 18% greater than the demand forecasts it has submitted to the Commission in its current (rate case) application,” the Advocates Office said in its Tuesday filing.
Cal Am says it’s because the rate case demand is based on forecasts for 2024.
One question Cal Am raises with the CPUC is what it says is an uncertainty of the source water for Pure Water Monterey’s expansion project, and cites drought years that could potentially decrease the supply. The recycling project uses waste water that is purified to a potable level and then injected into a large aquifer called the Seaside Basin. It’s from that aquifer that Cal Am pumps water to customers.
“We have been fortunate enough to have had two recent wet years in a row, but there still exists a need for a drought-proof water supply in desalination,” Stratton said.
But Monterey One Water in its 28-page filing said as the owner and operator of Pure Water Monterey, it is in the best position to project the current and anticipated availability of source water and expected Pure Water production, citing a signed contract, called a Water Purchase Agreement, with Cal Am to deliver a specific minimum supply every year.
“(Monterey One Water) has also put its money where its mouth is in terms of executing the (Water Purchase Agreement) and committing to supply sufficient pure water to allow Cal Am to draw 5,750 acre feet from the Seaside Basin,” regardless if the region was experiencing a drought year or not, Monterey One said in its 32-page filing. “Cal Am curiously has attempted to question the viability of source waters despite its contractual rights in the (Water Purchase Agreement).”
Chrislock, with Public Water Now, put the reliability of Pure Water Monterey this way: “What are people going to do, stop showering? Stop flushing the toilet?”
As for Cal Am, it says that in the long run, the Peninsula will need additional water.
“California American Water stands by our demand data because the Monterey Peninsula needs replacement water for the mandatory 70% (state mandated) pumping reductions made to the Carmel River,” Stratton said, “and desalination achieves that long-term goal.”
