It’s time to start telling the truth about Pure Water Monterey
It’s been about eight months since the launch of the Pure Water Monterey recycled water project was lauded in this newspaper, among others. Among much celebration, a ribbon was cut to inaugurate this new project on Oct. 4. The project promised 3,500 acre-feet of new water to the Monterey Peninsula and yet, to date, not a single drop has been delivered to our taps.
In fact, since the project began in earnest in 2012, it has amounted to nothing but a series of unfulfilled promises to the public, resulting in major cost overruns, schedule delays and grave technical concerns as to whether the project will work at all – entirely, of course, at the public’s expense.
No one has been asking the tough questions about Pure Water Monterey, because politically, it’s been deemed the cheaper, faster, more environmentally friendly alternative to desalination. Folks who want to get rid of Cal Am have been busy reassuring everyone the desal plant isn’t necessary and they need Pure Water Monterey to avoid addressing the obvious questions surrounding what will happen to our community if the desal plant isn’t constructed.
But regardless of opinions about Cal Am, we deserve to know the truth about Pure Water Monterey, especially before banking our future on it – and the facts are in plain sight.
When will Pure Water Monterey start providing water?
The project promised an annual delivery of 3,500 acre-feet of water in November 2019 but has missed multiple deadlines. The delays continue and not one drop has been made available for use by residents.
How much water will Pure Water Monterey provide?
The project is substantially below projected production volumes. Two shallow wells developed to inject treated water into the groundwater basin formed sink holes over 5 feet deep within weeks of starting operation and had to be shut down. The project’s deep well is injecting treated water at volumes below expectations. Staff at Monterey One Water and its partner agency, the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District, are already saying the fix could be as high as $11 million on top of existing cost overruns and discussions have begun about reducing the promised volume to be delivered.
In addition, the whole concept behind Pure Water Monterey was that it would be the pioneer in recycling agricultural wash water. But when pressed in public meetings, Monterey One Water staff admitted that no agriculture wash water has been treated by the project. Apparently, the water quality causes complications for their existing treatment system.
How much will Pure Water Monterey water cost?
The costs of the project, which will be paid by Cal Am customers, were claimed to be $85 million when it was approved by the CPUC. By the time of the project ribbon cutting, it had risen to $126 million. Today, Monterey One Water staff simply won’t say how high the costs have risen. That is far from transparent.
When the CPUC approved charging Cal Am customers for the project, the CPUC approved a maximum of $1,720 per acre-foot. Now, Monterey One Water says that the cost will be 27% higher this year and will rise to $2,600 per acre foot by mid 2021 – a 50% increase from what was originally described as the maximum.
But it gets worse. These numbers assume a delivery of 3,500 acre-feet annually. If it turns out, as is likely, that Pure Water Monterey can only deliver 2,000 acre-feet of water each year, then costs could approach nearly $4,900 per acre-foot, or 185% higher than the original cost estimate, without even considering rate increases for inflation, maintenance and replacement. Plus, not included is the cost of this water when it is pumped back out of the ground for delivery to water users.
Monterey One Water blew through its entire reserves on this project. Now, when faced with increased delinquent payments from their sewer service customers due to the COVID-19 crisis, they have no savings to weather the storm and instead are contemplating massive rate increases, furloughing or laying off employees, and freezing all capital investment on their existing, aging infrastructure. This is the same agency that in 2018 was responsible for the worst sewage spill in local history, resulting in millions of gallons of raw sewage being dumped into Monterey Bay. This is not the agency we need deferring investment and maintenance for our vital wastewater service.
All of this is incredibly important, not only because the public has been lied to and taken advantage of, but because the people who tell you we don’t need desal are promising an expanded Pure Water Monterey can take its place. They are asking us to bet our entire water future – our ability to recover economically from COVID-19 and our ability to construct affordable housing and provide new jobs – on a project that’s been nothing short of a disaster. It’s time for Monterey One Water to stop playing politics and to start telling the public the real facts about Pure Water Monterey. It’s the only way we can make rational decisions about water in this community.
Rick Heuer is president of the Monterey Peninsula Taxpayers Association
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June 21, 2020 at 12:07AM
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Guest commentary: When will Pure Water Monterey start providing water? - Monterey Herald
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