Who is the loser in the Monterey desalination saga?
Published 1st February 2012
Now that California American Water (CalAm) has pulled out of the Regional Desalination Project (RDP), it appears the company will move forward with an alternative – with no participation from regional agencies. It isn’t clear what those entities, namely the Marina Coast Water District (MCWD) and the Monterey County Water Resources Agency (MCWRA), have gained from their refusal to play nice with CalAm.
The big paranoia in California is that desalination is a front for real estate development. At the moment, anyone building a new property has to be able to show a 100-year sustainable water supply. It has proved the most effective insurance coastal residents have against urban sprawl ruining the view. A privately owned desal plant changes the game: once one is built, any property developer with a bit of pipe will have a 100-year sustainable water supply.
This is the main reason why opposition to Poseidon Resources’ desalination plant in Carlsbad has been so strong. Poseidon’s main backer is Mandeville Partners, a private equity investment group that has some interest in real estate.
CalAm is in a different situation. As a result of a state water board ruling, it must significantly reduce withdrawals from the Carmel River by 2016. It needs to build the desalination plant or it is out of business. That is why it teamed up with local public agencies to support the RDP. After all, putting public agencies in charge of the project might allay fears that the plant would open the way for urban sprawl across the Monterey Peninsula.
Unfortunately, this was not enough for the locals. As California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) policy advisor Stephen St. Marie told AWI in October, many people were under the impression that the RDP would have bolstered water supply, and they feared that new sources of water would eventually be found, rendering this costly project obsolete or unnecessary.
It seems CalAm will now move forward with the North Marina Project, which would provide 11MGD using slant wells and an ocean outfall. The company already has a certified environmental impact report that includes that project, and CalAm now awaits the CPUC’s approval to build a pipeline that would deliver water from the plant.
The MCWD and the MCWRA seem to be running out of options if they are still keen on preventing any desal project going ahead.
And when it goes ahead it will be a lesson to the agencies and the local population. Through their perverse opposition to a plant the CPUC has said must be built, they may find that they have given away the opportunity to control the future water supply to the Monterey Peninsula.
