The Peninsula already solved its water problem. Let the solution work.
With Pure Water Monterey's expansion set for its ribbon cutting Thursday, the desal plant looks less like a necessity and more like a very expensive backup plan.
On Thursday, Monterey County is scheduled to cut the ribbon on the expansion of Pure Water Monterey, growing the recycled water project from 5 million gallons a day to 7.6 million. It is worth pausing on what that number means: the Peninsula spent years and many millions building a drought-proof water supply out of its own wastewater, and it works.
Which raises an awkward question for the desalination plant that has been litigated, permitted, and fought over for the better part of a decade. If recycled water can deliver 7.6 million gallons a day, stored safely in the Seaside Basin, what exactly is the 6.4 million-gallon-a-day desal plant approved by the CPUC in 2018 still for?
The water agencies are asking exactly that. Last week the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District, the Marina Coast Water District and the City of Marina filed a motion asking the Public Utilities Commission to set aside its August approval of the Peninsula's water supply planning and its projected 2050 demand. Their argument, in essence: the demand numbers were built for a world without expanded Pure Water, and that world no longer exists.
Desalination has always been the most expensive way to make water, and its costs land on ratepayers. The Coastal Commission already shrank the project once, to 4.8 million gallons a day in 2022. Every gallon Pure Water Monterey adds is a gallon the Peninsula does not have to squeeze from the ocean at desal prices.
None of this means desalination is dead, or should be. A prudent region keeps options open. But committing ratepayers to one of the costliest water projects in California history while a cheaper, proven supply is literally coming online this week would be a failure of sequencing. As the water district's Dave Stoldt put it: "Let's lift the guardrails and see if we can handle prosperity."
The CPUC should grant the motion, pause the demand projections, and let the expanded Pure Water Monterey run. Measure the actual supply. Then decide what, if anything, the Peninsula still needs. The ribbon cutting is Thursday. The least the state can do is watch what happens after the scissors close.
We correct errors promptly and note them here. Send corrections to [email protected].
