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PROPOSED NEW MONTEREY COUNTY DESALINATION PLANS

From the Monterey County Herald
Serving Monterey County and the Salinas Valley

Posted on Tue, Mar. 16, 2004

County looks at desal deal

By JOE LIVERNOISE
jliveroise@montereyherald.com

Monterey County is trying to partner with Cal-Am Water Co. to develop a desalination plant in Moss Landing, a move that could signal a larger plant serving areas beyond the Peninsula.

The county's Water Resources Agency and Cal-Am have reached an accord that will go to the Board of Supervisors today for a final blessing. But the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District has asked the county for a brief delay until it receives a key technical study on another, smaller desalination plant it is proposing in Sand City.

If the desalination plant is built, it could be the largest such project in California, producing more than 10 million gallons per day. A desalination plant at Moss Landing built in partnership with Cal-Am and the county water agency would serve Cal-Am customers on the Monterey Peninsula but also could serve Fort Ord, Marina and portions of North County.

"While we're solving the problems of water on the Monterey Peninsula, this affords the opportunity for others to participate," said Steve Leonard, general manager of Cal-Am in Monterey.

The private water company has been looking at developing a desalination plant since it abandoned plans to build a dam on the Carmel River.

The water company is under state orders to reduce its dependence on water from the Carmel River. The company must find another source of water to replace the 10,700 acre-feet it is now taking from the river, which is home to threatened steelhead trout and red-legged frogs. An acre-foot of water is enough to turn a football field into a foot-deep pond, or provide water for four average Peninsula homes for a year.

At the same time Cal-Am has been working on its proposal, the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District has been working on plans for another, smaller project in Sand City that would help Cal-Am replace Carmel River water.

Cal-Am has identified the old National Refractories plant at Moss Landing, across Dolan Road from the Duke Energy Plant, as a possible site for the desalination project, though Leonard said his company will consider other options.

While Cal-Am was making public noises about building the desalination plant, others were taking notice and trying to convince Cal-Am that other areas of the county outside the Cal-Am service area were interested in water from the plant.

"We saw that the pipeline between Moss Landing and the Peninsula would go right past Fort Ord and we said 'hold on,'" said Curtis Weeks, general manager of the Monterey County Water Resources Agency.

Lack of an adequate water supply has been considered a limiting factor in the redevelopment of Fort Ord.

Other cities outside the Cal-Am's Peninsula service area have also presented the water company with lists of water needs to help those cities meet their future growth plans.

"We were at first very focused on our own needs because our first obligation is to our customers," Leonard said. "But given the many needs in the county, we agreed to see what kind of partnership we can develop. There are needs at Fort Ord and Marina and North County and we may be able to help."

County water officials have been meeting with Cal-Am for several months during sessions that resulted in a "letter of intent" to form a partnership to develop the desalination plant.

The Board of Supervisors is expected to endorse the partnership when it meets at 2 p.m. today.

Fran Farina, general manager of the Monterey Peninsula Water Management Agency, said the proposed partnership on today's agenda took the agency by surprise.

"At the moment, we feel like we're on the outside looking in," she said. "We don't want to be excluded from the planning, but we didn't even know this was going to be on the agenda this week."

Meanwhile, the Monterey Peninsula agency will be hearing results of a key study of the Sand City site in two weeks. That study will determine whether a Sand City desalination plant could produce the amount of water Cal-Am needs.

"If it proves to solve the problem, the district will move forward with the project at Sand City," Farina said.

As a result, her agency has formally asked the Board of Supervisors to wait at least two weeks before considering its partnership with Cal-Am for the Moss Landing site.

Weeks said he believes the Moss Landing site would be preferable because it could produce enough desalinated water to meet the needs of the entire region, and not just the Monterey Peninsula.

At the same time, the Moss Landing site has existing facilities "that make it attractive," including access to pipelines that can pull water in and out of Monterey Bay.

On the other hand, Weeks said new pipelines that will transport desalinated water from Moss Landing to the Peninsula would have to cross sensitive wetlands areas.

"There are plenty of environmental concerns that would have to be worked out," he said.

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Joe Livernois can be reached at 753-6753.