CONGRESSMAN SAM Farr, a former state assemblyman and a leading Monterey Peninsula conservationist have announced their support for a water supply plan from California American Water that includes a desalination plant in Marina, provided Cal Am accepts some changes proposed by local mayors.

In recent letters to the California Public Utilities Commission, Farr and former State Assemblyman Fred Keeley backed the position taken by six Peninsula mayors who said they would endorse Cal Am’s desal proposal if the company alters the project to make it more appealing to ratepayers. Monterey Bay Aquarium head Julie Packard is also backing the plan.

“I believe the conditions the [mayors have] proposed for the project go a long way toward building community consensus on an issue that has long divided the Monterey Peninsula,” Farr wrote in a Feb. 22 letter to CPUC President Michael Peevey.

Farr’s letter was attached to Feb. 22 testimony by Carmel Mayor Jason Burnett on behalf of the mayors — collectively known as the Monterey Peninsula Regional Water Authority — to the CPUC for consideration of Cal Am’s desal proposal. Burnett is vice president of the mayors group.

On Jan. 31, the mayors issued a position statement saying Cal Am’s desal plant is the most likely of three proposals to be built the quickest. But the mayors said Cal Am would need to accept a large contribution in public funds, offer more public oversight, limit the financial risk to customers, address technical concerns and make other changes to the their plan in order to gain their endorsement.

Cal Am has been receptive to the suggestions and is expected to make a more detailed statement about the mayors’ position in early March.

Burnett said Farr’s support of the mayors’ position is important considering Farr represents all of Monterey County, including the Salinas Valley, where farmers have raised concerns about the impact of the Cal Am project on their water rights.

Perhaps more notable is the backing from former State Assemblyman Fred Keeley, who in 1998 — when he represented Monterey Bay — sponsored legislation to require the CPUC to develop a viable alternative water project to the defunct Carmel River Dam proposal. Desal was the option the CPUC proposed.

“It is my opinion that numerous past water supply proposals have failed, at least in part,” Keeley wrote in a Feb. 20 letter to Burnett, “because of the lack of united community support and leadership for a specific project that is technically and legally viable, cost effective and which affords meaningful public participation and oversight.”
Keeley went on to say that the mayors group and its leadership may now “assist in achieving a successful project” as long as Cal Am meets the conditions set by the group.

Keeley’s support bodes well, Burnett said, because he was influential early on in the Monterey Peninsula’s quest for an alternative water supply to the Carmel River, the Peninsula’s primary water source.

“I think the CPUC will take note because he is saying our position is consistent with his original legislation, which is the legislation the CPUC is following,” Burnett said.

The Monterey County Board of Supervisors, Monterey Peninsula Water Management District and, the Coalition of Peninsula Businesses also back the mayors’ position on Cal Am’s proposed project.

Julie Packard, executive director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, sent a letter Feb. 19 to mayors group President Chuck Della Sala saying the Aquarium supports the group’s position and that a secure water supply is vital to the Aquarium’s mission as a visitor-serving business.

“Restrictions on water supply would severely decrease the number of visitors we are able to serve,” Packard said. “If hotels have to limit their room availability because of insufficient water supplies, a majority of our visitors would be less likely to visit.”

“The Aquarium has, of course, an interest in the community finding a water solution but to do it in a way that protects the marine environment,” said Burnett, Packard’s nephew.

In their position statement, the mayors support a desal operation such as Cal Am’s proposal that uses wells to draw source water from the ocean instead of open ocean intakes, which are widely frowned upon for their negative environmental impacts.

Not everyone supportive

While Burnett and the mayors groups has been widely praised for its efforts, Pacific Grove City Councilman Dan Miller contends the group is ignoring other potentially viable projects.

In a council meeting last week — and in conversations with The Pine Cone afterward — Miller had harsh words about the mayors’ and specifically Burnett’s role in the water issues.

“I do not any longer want to give money from the city of Pacific Grove to what appears more and more to me is being used as a grandstand for the mayor of Carmel,” Miller said.

Miller’s comments were made before the council voted 6-1 — Miller dissenting — to continue to help finance the mayors’ water group with a $32,000 check.

Miller has long been critical of Cal Am and instead has supported a competing desal project in Moss Landing proposed by developer Nader Agha. Last year, the Pacific Grove City Council voted 5-2 to be the public partner for Agha’s project.

“My belief is that Mr. Burnett is doing all of this and ignoring [Agha’s] project because his city wasn’t at the forefront of getting things done,” Miller told The Pine Cone, referring to Pacific Grove’s backing of Agha’s project.

But Agha’s project has taken some bizarre turns. In December 2012, San Francisco Bay Area businessman Don Lew suddenly announced at a council meeting he was taking over Agha’s project and renaming it. Then, a financing deal between Lew and Agha collapsed, and Lew is no longer involved.

While Burnett wouldn’t respond to Miller’s comments, he pointed to the overwhelming support the mayors have received for their efforts.

“I think that level of consensus has not been seen in this community for a generation,” Burnett said, “and it’s that consensus we need to move a water project forward.”