MONTEREY — Monterey Peninsula Water Management District officials have requested the Monterey One Water board certify the Pure Water Monterey expansion project supplemental environmental impact report within 30 days and is withholding more than $600,000 representing part of its share of the environmental review.
In a May 1 letter to the Monterey One Water board, the water management district board questioned its project partner agency’s “good faith efforts to facilitate readiness of this needed back-up water supply,” pointing to “significant ambiguity, lacking clarification, and in light of comments on the (supplemental EIR) by some on your board,” and adding that the water district board “believes a good faith effort requires the (supplemental EIR) be certified if it meets the rigors of the (California Environmental Quality Act) process, which we believe it has.”
The letter was sent at the end of a week that began with the Monterey One Water board narrowly denying certification of the expansion proposal’s supplemental EIR with the majority arguing it failed to adequately address several key issues including source water availability, alternatives analysis and cumulative impacts analysis, among others.
The expansion seeks to add 2,250 acre-feet of water to the promised 3,500 acre-feet of water from the core Pure Water Monterey recycled water project, and the combined water supply has been touted for its alleged ability to supply enough water for the Peninsula to meet the Carmel River pumping cutback order and meet a revised demand projection through at least 2043 even without California American Water’s long-planned desalination project.
But the expansion proposal has drawn stiff resistance from Cal Am, Peninsula business interests and others, including a small majority of the Monterey One Water board.
The letter was also sent after a special Thursday afternoon water district board closed session meeting to address potential legal action against Monterey One Water due to the actions taken on the recycled water expansion project environmental review document.
Water district general manager Dave Stoldt said the water district board decided to “forestall litigation right now and instead offer this opportunity to remedy” by drafting the letter as a “precursor or alternative to litigation.”
Calling itself “your partner and project co-sponsor for select project-related costs,” the water district indicated in the letter that the Monterey One Water agency’s actions had left the water district and the public with “unanswered questions and uncertainty regarding this planned and needed back-up water supply component.”
The letter alleged that the Monterey One Water board failed to provide a “clear definition as to any area of deficiency or topic in need of further analysis,” and requests the wastewater treatment and recycling agency identify any specific deficiencies in the SEIR, remedy them and bring the document back to the board for certification within 30 days.
In the meantime, the letter indicated the water district would “suspend fiscal co-sponsorship of project-related costs incurred” by the agency, and would hold off on paying a $614,000 invoice from Monterey One Water received on April 24. The district had committed to covering about $750,000 of the expansion project’s $1 million environmental review.
Stoldt noted earlier in the week that “both agencies adopted a funding plan with the goal of a ‘ready-to-go alternative in place if the desalination facility is stalled.’ Clearly, (Monterey One Water) did not do everything in its discretionary power to do so.”
The letter requests Monterey One Water officials to respond to Stoldt within 10 days.
Monterey One Water general manager Paul Sciuto did not immediately respond to The Herald’s request for comment.
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MPWMD calls for revisiting Pure Water Monterey expansion report - Monterey Herald
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