THE MONTEREY Peninsula’s water shortage has been going on for so long, it’s a bit hard to keep it in the perspective of a normal community with a normal water supply.

Believe us: The fact that we have a legal water supply one-fourth of the minimum we need each year is a bizarre farce. That we are being asked to spend $400 million on a desal, pipeline and storage project to supplement the tiny supply we have now is ridiculous. And the fact that, even after spending all that money, we won’t have any new water for lots of record, remodels, infill housing and even modest business expansion is outrageous.

All over the Monterey Peninsula, families and businesses need a bit of new water for their basic needs. Vacant lots sit undeveloped. Underused buildings stand empty. Firefighters can’t practice with live hoses. Etc., etc.

Ironically, Mother Nature is already running a huge desal plant by shining the sun on the Pacific Ocean. And as those huge quantities of evaporated water move up into the atmosphere and then inland, they forms clouds and (sometimes) rain, which blesses the land with copious amounts of pure H2O, all for free.

But environmental restrictions prevent this community from capturing more than a little of that free water. So we must make our own. But, if we’re going to all the trouble of building a desal plant and all the associated storage facilities and pipelines, why are we building one which fails to provide the one thing this community really needs?

The weird thing is, everybody in the community agrees there should be a modest amount of new water — not enough for big new subdivisions up and down Highway 68 or Carmel Valley Road, but enough for the tiny little projects many homeowners need, for a few new tables at a restaurant or two, for redevelopment of underused buildings, and for a little bit of new housing where it’s needed. At least, if somebody in a position of responsibility wants No New Water, he isn’t saying so. Not even this community’s most ardent activists are taking the No New Water position.

Yet, there they were Tuesday morning at Colton Hall, a whole bevy of elected officials and water bigshots, announcing a hugely complicated and hugely expensive water project with a huge price tag. But it includes not a single drop of new water for the people who have to pay for it.

Why?