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PEBBLE BEACH CO. PROPOSAL TO SELL "ENTITLED" WATER

 From the Monterey County Herald
Serving Monterey County and the Salinas Valley
Published Thursday, January 31, 2002

Hefty prices aim to finance reclamation plant upgrade

By Dennis Moran
dmoran@montereyherald.com

A Pebble Beach Co. proposal to sell high-priced water to finance improvements water recycling system appears headed for heated discussion at tonight's Monterey Peninsula Water Management District board meeting.

The Pebble Beach Co. wants to sell 100 acre-feet of water privately for $150,000 an acre-foot to help finance about $20 million in improvements to the company's Wastewater Reclamation Project, which has fallen almost 200 acre-feet a year short of the 800 acre-feet of water it was designed to save by recycling waste water for golf-course irrigation. The reclaimed water is also high in sodium. The system, which began operation in 1994 at a cost of $33.9 million, would be upgraded by including a desalinization process and increasing storage at the Forest Lake Reservoir to meet peak irrigation needs, according to a water district staff report

The purchase price of $150,685 per acre-foot would come on top of the district's standard connection charge of $19,200 per acre-foot meaning buyers would be paying nearly $170,000 an acre-foot.

The proposal reminds some activists of controversial water-credit transfers of the type that the water district board is expected to formally begin eliminating tonight in an unrelated agenda item. The schedule calls for the first reading of an ordinance deleting all references to water-credit transfers from district rules and regulations.

A Pebble Beach Co. official on Wednesday referred questions about the proposal to Alan Williams, who consults with the resort operator on land-use matters. He was not available to comment Wednesday afternoon.

Williams has previously said that the proposal involves no "profiteering"-- all proceeds would go toward improving the water recycling system so that it would produce even more irrigation water than it's designed for.

But the high price still rankles some.

"We are creating two societies for a resource everyone needs," says Carmel Valley lawyer Fran Farina, meaning those stuck on a waiting list to pay the district's standard connection fee and those who can afford to participate in high-priced private deals. Though "the concept of reclamation is excellent," the Pebble Beach proposal is "just a tremendous waste of money for an infinitesimal amount of water" savings, he said.

"This is probably the most expensive water in the world," Farina continued. "Only the Monterey Peninsula would have considered the project in the first place . . . There is no other place in the country that would be so stupid."

Former water board chair-woman and environmental activist Pat Bernardi said she "hasn't heard anything positive" about the proposal.

"I think you'd find the same (negative reaction that previous water-credit transfers have generated), that it's just another scheme to sell water to the highest bidder."

The Pebble Beach Co. originally had proposed selling the water only to residential lots within the Del Monte Forest, lots that have been subjected to environmental-impact studies. The new proposal, as out-lined in a letter to the district from Pebble Beach Co. Executive Vice President Mark Stilwell, says that if the company wishes to sell water to properties outside the forest, the district would agree to perform any environmental reviews needed.

A lawsuit over a previous highly controversial sale of water credits was settled earlier this month with an agreement calling, among other things, for environmental impact reviews to be performed on any projects resulting from such transactions.

Pebble Beach Co. has water to sell because it received the right to a little less than 50 percent of the water the reclamation project was designed to save.

In addition to the 100 acre feet for sale, the company would transfer 45 acre-feet of its water entitlement to the water district for distribution to residential and government users at the standard fee of $19,000 per acre-foot, according to the proposal. In turn the district would provide the company with the fees from future hookups of the company's 355 acre-foot entitlement - a total of $6,816,000, according to the staff report.

The Monterey Peninsula Water Management District meeting starts at 7 p.m. at the Monterey City Council Chambers, Pacific and Madison streets.