Our Community Values Count!
We value open space, conservation, and habitat protection!
Our Marina beaches are where the Cal-Am Slant Well Project will be built (on the current Cemex Sandmining operation that will be shut down and designated for open space and conservation in perpetuity after restoration of the habitat).
Our Marina beaches are where the Cal-Am Slant Well Project will be built (on the current Cemex Sandmining operation that will be shut down and designated for open space and conservation in perpetuity after restoration of the habitat).
And after two years of a test slant well on our shores from 2015-2016, our precious Western Snowy Plover population is on a downward trend and yet there is no accountability for Cal-Am to prove their slant well was NOT a contributor!
What’s going on and who is responsible for investigating? Does Cal-Am merely state in a Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) that impacts are “possible” but have no responsibility for actual outcomes of any negative impacts as they become available?
We have the right to be valued as equals with the Peninsula!
City of Marina Denounces Decision by CPUC to Approve Cal Am Desalination Project as Inconsistent with Community and Environmental Values
For Immediate Release
Contact: Alison MacLeod (916)225-6317
(September 13, 2018, Marina, CA) – The City of Marina is extremely disappointed in the decision announced today by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) that approves a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) for Cal Am’s Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project (Project). This decision shows complete disregard for the desalination Project’s serious impacts to Marina’s community values, groundwater resources and sensitive coastal environment and it fails to provide a legally adequate environmental analysis to be used by other agencies, like Marina, that will consider Project permits.
The PUC incorrectly concludes that the desalination plant is the only realistic option to meet local water supply needs, when in fact there are much more affordable, environmentally sustainable alternatives available. The City of Marina remains willing to work with neighboring cities on a regional solution that will solve the water supply needs while respecting the community and environmental values of the residents of Marina.
“This desalination Project threatens to cause severe environmental harm to groundwater resources in Marina and will have a disproportionate impact on our city’s disadvantaged communities, who will be required to bear negative impacts without receiving any of the Project water,” said Bruce Delgado, Mayor of the City of Marina. “Despite recent rhetoric about a concern for disadvantaged communities, the CPUC authorized the siting of destructive industrial plant in a disadvantaged coastal community. Only one Commissioner mentioned Marina while the other Commissioners focused on the benefit to customers in Cal Am’s Monterey District, which does not include Marina, from increased water supply. The Commission ignored the adverse impacts of the Project itself on Marina.“
“The record simply does not support the CPUC’s claims that the Project impacts we fear will be absent or minimal. Too often we have seen CPUC-approved projects where the costs are vastly underestimated and the impacts are far greater than expected. The CPUC cannot afford to make the same mistakes here,” said Delgado.
Despite the CPUC’s decision, the desalination plant does not yet have the green light to proceed. Cal Am’s Project requires a series of permits and approvals from additional regulatory bodies. The City of Marina, Coastal Commission, Regional Water Quality Control Board, State Lands Commission, and other entities will be called upon to carefully review the record and assess the Project’s impacts under the agency’s special jurisdiction, including environmental harm to the coastline, depletion and degradation of the groundwater basin, and infringement upon the local community’s ability to determine land use.
The CPUC decision stated that the Project at a size of 6.4 million gallons per day was the only feasible project that could meet local water demand. However, four experts who testified at the October-November 2017 evidentiary hearings calculated that Cal Am’s realistic future water demand is 10,500 acre-feet per year (afy), not the bloated 14,500 afy amount adopted by the decision. Moreover, there are other sources of water, including expansion of the Pure Water Monterey project and water sales from Marina Coast Water District that could meet the demand in a much more responsible, affordable, and sustainable manner. The Project’s Final Environmental Impact Report never even addressed these alternatives.
“It is unbelievable that the CPUC dismissed such better water supply alternatives given the dramatic and sustained drop in Cal Am water system demand,” said Delgado. “The CPUC has foreclosed any opportunity for reasonable alternatives to be fully vetted. The offers of many parties and agencies to work together to develop a more acceptable solution that would benefit the entire region have been ignored.”
The CPUC decision points to an interim deadline in Cal Am’s Carmel River Cease and Desist Order issued by the State Water Board to stop its illegal diversions from the Carmel River as the reason for cutting off additional evaluation of alternatives and issuing a decision at this time. However, the record shows that this milestone will have no real impact on Cal Am’s water services.
“Trading one bad water supply problem for another in Marina with even more far-reaching environmental and community impact issues is not a policy the CPUC should embrace. The decision to build a massive industrial desalination project in a disadvantaged community should not be driven by a desire to move quickly to avoid penalties for Cal Am – that is not the obligation of the CPUC. Instead, the CPUC has a legal obligation to conduct a full examination of not just CPUC project benefits, but also its negative impacts and possible alternatives,” said Delgado.
The City of Marina has identified a series of major Project risks and feasibility issues including:
depletion and degradation of a critically overdrafted groundwater basin that is protected by the state’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act;
the lack of any current water rights or any reasonable future path to obtain such rights in this critically overdrafted basin;
betrayal of local water conservation efforts as the Project would pump massive amounts of water that far exceed realistic demands in Cal Am's service territory;
the Final Environmental Impact Report/ Environmental Impact Statement displays factual, scientific and legal inadequacies;
major expected impacts to Marina’s unique and special coastal ecosystem from the acres of slant wells, pipelines and other industrial facilities, which are expected to have permanent impacts on the coastal sand dunes and the protected western snowy plover and other species that live in this habitat;
and total disregard for Marina’s community values and for its successful effort, in partnership with the Coastal Commission and State Lands Commission, to end the harmful Cemex sand mining operation on the very same Project site.
“Our water resources are precious and must be protected,” said Delgado. “The Cal Am desalination Project disregards our region’s long-held environmental principles and policies that protect California coastlines and water basins from degradation. Marina has already been forced to accommodate major industrial facilities including the regional landfill, sewage treatment plant, and beach sand mine. Cal Am’s Project is yet the latest example of our working-class city being targeted to bear the burden of these facilities for the benefit of neighboring communities.”
Contact: Alison MacLeod (916)225-6317
(September 13, 2018, Marina, CA) – The City of Marina is extremely disappointed in the decision announced today by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) that approves a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) for Cal Am’s Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project (Project). This decision shows complete disregard for the desalination Project’s serious impacts to Marina’s community values, groundwater resources and sensitive coastal environment and it fails to provide a legally adequate environmental analysis to be used by other agencies, like Marina, that will consider Project permits.
The PUC incorrectly concludes that the desalination plant is the only realistic option to meet local water supply needs, when in fact there are much more affordable, environmentally sustainable alternatives available. The City of Marina remains willing to work with neighboring cities on a regional solution that will solve the water supply needs while respecting the community and environmental values of the residents of Marina.
“This desalination Project threatens to cause severe environmental harm to groundwater resources in Marina and will have a disproportionate impact on our city’s disadvantaged communities, who will be required to bear negative impacts without receiving any of the Project water,” said Bruce Delgado, Mayor of the City of Marina. “Despite recent rhetoric about a concern for disadvantaged communities, the CPUC authorized the siting of destructive industrial plant in a disadvantaged coastal community. Only one Commissioner mentioned Marina while the other Commissioners focused on the benefit to customers in Cal Am’s Monterey District, which does not include Marina, from increased water supply. The Commission ignored the adverse impacts of the Project itself on Marina.“
“The record simply does not support the CPUC’s claims that the Project impacts we fear will be absent or minimal. Too often we have seen CPUC-approved projects where the costs are vastly underestimated and the impacts are far greater than expected. The CPUC cannot afford to make the same mistakes here,” said Delgado.
Despite the CPUC’s decision, the desalination plant does not yet have the green light to proceed. Cal Am’s Project requires a series of permits and approvals from additional regulatory bodies. The City of Marina, Coastal Commission, Regional Water Quality Control Board, State Lands Commission, and other entities will be called upon to carefully review the record and assess the Project’s impacts under the agency’s special jurisdiction, including environmental harm to the coastline, depletion and degradation of the groundwater basin, and infringement upon the local community’s ability to determine land use.
The CPUC decision stated that the Project at a size of 6.4 million gallons per day was the only feasible project that could meet local water demand. However, four experts who testified at the October-November 2017 evidentiary hearings calculated that Cal Am’s realistic future water demand is 10,500 acre-feet per year (afy), not the bloated 14,500 afy amount adopted by the decision. Moreover, there are other sources of water, including expansion of the Pure Water Monterey project and water sales from Marina Coast Water District that could meet the demand in a much more responsible, affordable, and sustainable manner. The Project’s Final Environmental Impact Report never even addressed these alternatives.
“It is unbelievable that the CPUC dismissed such better water supply alternatives given the dramatic and sustained drop in Cal Am water system demand,” said Delgado. “The CPUC has foreclosed any opportunity for reasonable alternatives to be fully vetted. The offers of many parties and agencies to work together to develop a more acceptable solution that would benefit the entire region have been ignored.”
The CPUC decision points to an interim deadline in Cal Am’s Carmel River Cease and Desist Order issued by the State Water Board to stop its illegal diversions from the Carmel River as the reason for cutting off additional evaluation of alternatives and issuing a decision at this time. However, the record shows that this milestone will have no real impact on Cal Am’s water services.
“Trading one bad water supply problem for another in Marina with even more far-reaching environmental and community impact issues is not a policy the CPUC should embrace. The decision to build a massive industrial desalination project in a disadvantaged community should not be driven by a desire to move quickly to avoid penalties for Cal Am – that is not the obligation of the CPUC. Instead, the CPUC has a legal obligation to conduct a full examination of not just CPUC project benefits, but also its negative impacts and possible alternatives,” said Delgado.
The City of Marina has identified a series of major Project risks and feasibility issues including:
depletion and degradation of a critically overdrafted groundwater basin that is protected by the state’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act;
the lack of any current water rights or any reasonable future path to obtain such rights in this critically overdrafted basin;
betrayal of local water conservation efforts as the Project would pump massive amounts of water that far exceed realistic demands in Cal Am's service territory;
the Final Environmental Impact Report/ Environmental Impact Statement displays factual, scientific and legal inadequacies;
major expected impacts to Marina’s unique and special coastal ecosystem from the acres of slant wells, pipelines and other industrial facilities, which are expected to have permanent impacts on the coastal sand dunes and the protected western snowy plover and other species that live in this habitat;
and total disregard for Marina’s community values and for its successful effort, in partnership with the Coastal Commission and State Lands Commission, to end the harmful Cemex sand mining operation on the very same Project site.
“Our water resources are precious and must be protected,” said Delgado. “The Cal Am desalination Project disregards our region’s long-held environmental principles and policies that protect California coastlines and water basins from degradation. Marina has already been forced to accommodate major industrial facilities including the regional landfill, sewage treatment plant, and beach sand mine. Cal Am’s Project is yet the latest example of our working-class city being targeted to bear the burden of these facilities for the benefit of neighboring communities.”
Q: What efforts has Cal-Am made to address the need for the project with the community?
A: (Cal-Am’s response at a CA Public Utilities Commission evidentiary hearing):
“…In addition to the required application notifications, Public Participation Hearings and public meetings and notifications related to the project EIR, Cal-Am has engaged in additional outreach activities to keep its customers (none of whom are in Marina) informed of the Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project, its progress and current status.
It includes frequently asked questions, multi-media features, important documents including test well data, general descriptive information on the project including budget and schedule, and a contact page”
BUT no mention of what they did in Marina, the place where they intend to take massive amounts of OUR groundwater, for free, without our approval, without proper public involvement! And by the way, in two years and a half years from the last Draft Environmental Impact presentation to City Council, Cal-Am has not had one public forum in Marina!
We value science to make good decisions!
Would you trust a doctor who said you did not have cancer when all he did was take 8 random biopsies in different body locations without doing an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)?
A: (Cal-Am’s response at a CA Public Utilities Commission evidentiary hearing):
“…In addition to the required application notifications, Public Participation Hearings and public meetings and notifications related to the project EIR, Cal-Am has engaged in additional outreach activities to keep its customers (none of whom are in Marina) informed of the Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project, its progress and current status.
It includes frequently asked questions, multi-media features, important documents including test well data, general descriptive information on the project including budget and schedule, and a contact page”
BUT no mention of what they did in Marina, the place where they intend to take massive amounts of OUR groundwater, for free, without our approval, without proper public involvement! And by the way, in two years and a half years from the last Draft Environmental Impact presentation to City Council, Cal-Am has not had one public forum in Marina!
We value science to make good decisions!
Would you trust a doctor who said you did not have cancer when all he did was take 8 random biopsies in different body locations without doing an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)?
This is the difference between Cal-Am’s “science” that claims “no harm” to Marina’s water basins using 8 random vertical wells for data versus Dr. Rosemary Knight of Stanford’s AEM (airborne Electro-magnetic imaging technique) that clearly shows, in an expansive imaging that goes to depths of 1,000 feet, that Cal-Am will be drawing fresh water from our basin, NOT unusable water as Cal-Am claims!
Environmental Justice is Everyone's Right!
The social and economic injustice is clear. In search of a new water supply beyond its area of service, Cal Am has opted to take advantage of a poorer community that it perceives as financially weak, politically unsupported, and unable to rigorously defend its groundwater resources. We will not receive an equitable distribution of environmental risks and benefits if this project is approved.
2014-2015 Demographics of Marina and other Monterey Peninsula Cities
Please note the growth rates in the peninsula cities with the highest property values and household incomes. Those communities are in population decline, yet the MPWSP DEIR has highly inflated numbers for future growth to justify the take of our water. Marina and Ord Lands growth and water needs are completely absent in the project description.
Please note the growth rates in the peninsula cities with the highest property values and household incomes. Those communities are in population decline, yet the MPWSP DEIR has highly inflated numbers for future growth to justify the take of our water. Marina and Ord Lands growth and water needs are completely absent in the project description.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency defines environmental justice as follows:
Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. EPA has this goal for all communities and persons across this Nation [sic]. It will be achieved when everyone enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work.13
Our Community Values Count!