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PEBBLE BEACH CO. PROPOSAL TO SELL "ENTITLED" WATER

From The Carmel Pine cone
Published: December 19, 2003

New water board does some undoing
by MARY BROWNFIELD

AT THEIR inaugural meeting Monday, the new directors of the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District board immediately got to work undoing what the ousted majority did in its final months.

The first bell unrung was the Nov. 24 ordinance permitting the expansion of a Pebble Beach recycled water project. Though unanimously adopted last month, the law was unanimously returned to the drawing board Monday night. The board also stepped up the search to replace acting general manager Fran Farina and put off consideration of an EIR for the Sand City desal plant the former majority was pushing.

The P.B. ordinance was written to facilitate the financing and expansion of a reclaimed water system owned and operated by the Carmel Area Wastewater District and the Pebble Beach Community Services District, but the final version of the ordinance was objectionable to those two public agencies, as well as the Pebble Beach Company and the group of water users in Del Monte Forest. P.B. Co. plans to sell some of its water to Del Monte Forest residents to finance the $22 million expansion, which will generate higher-quality water for use on golf courses and open space.

Attorneys representing the groups, along with P.B. Co. Executive Vice President Mark Stilwell, said they could not abide by the restrictions on the use of drinking water during a system failure or the requirement that water buyers publicly disclose how much they use. They asked the board to reconsider the ordinance as promised by director Alvin Edwards immediately after its adoption last month.

Jim Nero, president of the Del Monte Forest Property Owners Association, asked the board to excise the ordinance's requirement that water purchasers make their Cal-Am bills public and put deed restrictions on their property.

"These place a severe burden on the company's ability to raise the funds necessary to finance the water reclamation project," he said. "I very respectfully ask the board on behalf of Del Monte Forest property owners to delete these restrictions so the water can be sold and this project can move ahead to success."

New board member Kristi Markey, attending her first meeting with fellow newcomers Michelle Knight and Larry Foy, said she hoped reconsideration of the ordinance would not lead to the demise of what she called its "public accountability pieces."

"We should look closely at those and try to understand the objections &emdash; I don't want to throw the whole piece out," she said.

The majority asked that changes be brought back in February or March. Once approved, the law cannot take effect until contracts between the various parties (CAWD, PBCSD, the P.B. Co. and the Inde- pendent Reclaimed Water Users Group) are signed.

Markey and chair Judi Lehman argued for more time and said a new environmental impact report should be prepared.

By the time they considered the draft environmental impact report for a possible desal plant in Sand City, the hour was late and directors were weary. Deciding the document was lacking important details, they voted 7-0 in favor of a motion by Markey to delay discussion of the EIR until March, when consultants expect to complete the geophysical studies of test wells.

The weighty draft has cost $1.35 million so far to analyze several projects: an 8,409-acre-foot-per-year desalination plant in Sand City, a smaller plant coupled with underground water storage in the Seaside Basin, a dam and reservoir on Carmel River and a Moss Landing desalination plant.

Director Dave Potter called the Moss Landing proposal "a ghost."

"There's no known location, no known size, no known cost," he said. "Until I see an application, I don't know if there's even a project."

Monday night's hearing presented the first opportunity for Knight and Foy to try to shelve the Sand City project. Both criticized it during their campaigns in favor of a larger desal plant in Moss Landing, while Markey backed a district-controlled Sand City plant.

During the hearing, directors also asked staff to determine the cost of placing review copies in libraries and other public locations. Electronic copies on CD-ROM were suggested as well, to save time and money.