A $230,000 revision of the Pure Water Monterey expansion project’s environmental review document will move forward after the Monterey One Water board approved the work earlier this week.
At the same time, board members backing the study revision made it clear they wouldn’t support approving the recycled water expansion proposal itself until an outside funding source is available.
On Monday, the Monterey One Water board voted 7-3 to approve the work needed to update a supplemental environmental impact report for the expansion proposal, including consultant contracts and a cost-sharing agreement with the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District whose board agreed last month to cover most of the revision’s cost.
Under the cost-sharing agreement, Monterey One Water will cover about $57,500 or 25% of the cost while the water management district will pay for about $172,500 of the work, which includes consultant contracts with Denise Duffy & Associates for environmental review services including an update to the project description that incorporates two new injection wells, the Perkins Coie law firm for environmental legal services, and Carollo Engineers for a regional water balance model that is not considered part of the environmental review but will include proposed source water analysis for the project that has emerged as a key issue, as well as staff time.
The board is expected to consider the revised supplemental environmental impact report at its April 26 board meeting, though the agency’s recycled water committee is expected to review the revision at its April 15 meeting.
Once completed, the revised supplemental environmental impact report will have cost nearly $1.3 million.
Last year, the Monterey One Water board narrowly declined to certify the expansion project supplemental environmental impact report, citing numerous questions about its source water assumptions and the agency’s financial capacity to move forward on the proposal among other questions, and never voted on a staff recommendation to conditionally approve the project pending an outside funding source for the proposal. Work on the project stalled until the board agreed to reconsider moving forward on the supplemental environmental impact report in February.
Monterey City Councilman Tyller Williamson made the motion to approve the supplemental environmental impact report update work, arguing that the agency had already essentially agreed to move ahead on the environmental review by dedicating more than a million dollars to the endeavor.
But Williamson also noted that the board would not be considering project approval along with supplemental environmental impact report certification and would not do so until a water purchase agreement for the product water is in place, likely with California American Water, or some other outside funding source is found, later calling it “irresponsible” for the agency to attempt to finance the project itself.
“I hope it’s very clear to our ratepayers … that we won’t take on the financial burden ourselves,” he said.
Marina Coast Water District board member Tom Moore, the agency board’s vice chairman, agreed that some kind of “external” funding source was needed to move forward with the project approval.
According to agency General Manager Paul Sciuto on Monday, the most recent expansion project cost estimate is $38.5 million, while the original Pure Water Monterey cost has risen to $148 million.
Agency official Mike McCullough said staff will not recommend even conditional approval of the expansion project until after a funding source is secured, and none is near completion.
Supervisor John Phillips, who cast a dissenting vote, reiterated a number of concerns about the supplemental environmental impact report including its source water, which he noted would come from a Salinas Valley groundwater basin already in need of every bit of its own water supply, and Monterey Peninsula water demand and supply assumptions, which were based on a water management district analysis that he suggested was biased, as well as the prospect that the agency board would face enormous political pressure to approve the project if the supplemental environmental impact report was certified.
He said he was concerned that “water lobbyists” were making decisions for the agency board and using the expansion proposal to oppose Cal Am’s desal project despite acknowledging in private that desal would be needed, and the agency would get blamed when the Pure Water Monterey project and expansion ended up falling short of providing enough water for the Peninsula.
Phillips said he would only consider certifying the supplemental environmental impact report if all the questions were answered and the document was shelved for 5-7 years until the agency has addressed its financial condition and its capital needs.
Salinas Councilwoman Christie Cromeenes also cast a dissenting vote after saying she was prepared to vote for moving ahead on the supplemental environmental impact report revision but echoed Phillips’ concern about political pressure to approve the project.
Sand City Mayor Mary Ann Carbone, the agency board chairwoman, also voted against moving forward on the supplemental environmental impact report update.
Before the board’s vote, Sciuto said he had conducted outreach to project “partners,” including the city of Salinas, Marina Coast, the Monterey County Water Resources Agency, Cal Am, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and the state water board. He said most of those entities had expressed satisfaction with the agency’s responses to their questions and comments about the supplemental environmental impact report from last year. But he did note that county water agency General Manager Brent Buche continued to raise ongoing source water questions and discussions are continuing on those issues, new Salinas City Manager Steve Carrigan indicated he needed more time to understand the city’s issues with the project, and the agency is continuing talks with Cal Am on use of the agency’s outfall pipeline and other issues.
Several speakers including Public Water Now Managing Director Melodie Chrislock expressed support for the supplemental environmental impact report update and moving ahead with the expansion project, while Cal Am Vice President Ian Crooks said the company backed the staff recommendation as long as a parallel pipeline was included in the revised document, which agency staff had recommended.
In other water news, the state water board awarded Central Coast entities nearly $9 million to support stormwater management, including pollution prevention and water quality strategies, from state Proposition 1 approved by voters in 2014.
Sand City is slated to receive $2.7 million for the West End Stormwater Improvement project aimed at upgrading the quality of the city’s urban stormwater runoff, helping augment groundwater quality, providing climate change adaptation, reducing flooding and creating urban green space.
Salinas will get $6.3 million for its Enhance Regional Stormwater Supply project.
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Pure Water Monterey expansion SEIR revision work approved - Monterey Herald
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