Monterey >> Two water
agencies with crucial roles in Monterey Bay coastal communities’ water supplies
should ramp up their conservation efforts, but their ability to maintain and
increase available water supplies in the future remains a “lingering concern.”
According to a report issued
Friday by the Monterey County civil grand jury, both the Monterey Peninsula
Water Management District and the Marina Coast Water District should continue
their efforts to conserve water. Both, however, have room to improve and will
need to do so considering the need for additional water supplies, coming
restrictions and the region’s failure thus far to complete a new water supply
project despite a 60-year debate.
The report indicated the grand
jury decided to investigate the districts because they include about a quarter
of the county’s residents in their boundaries, representing a major portion of
all residential and commercial water use in the region, and because of the
“significant amount of controversy, involving both districts, with regard to
managing existing resources and generating new supplies of water.”
The report noted the Peninsula
already lacks adequate water for growth, and is facing a state-ordered cutback
in pumping from the Carmel River in the water management district’s
jurisdiction. Marina Coast, the report pointed out, is obligated to provide
water to feed Fort Ord development and could even be affected by a Salinas
Valley water basin adjudication — where the district gets much of its water —
as a result of the state’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.
The report also noted the water
management district’s support for California American Water’s desalination
project, and both agencies’ involvement in negotiations on the groundwater
replenishment project, praising it as potentially a “more efficient use of
reclaimed and treated wastewater across the county.” It also suggested that
Marina Coast could pursue storage and use of excess surface water flows from
the Salinas River to enhance existing supplies, noting that the water
management district already does so with the Carmel River.
The report recommended the
water management district, already featuring among the lowest per-capita use in
the state, should cut its water usage by an additional 500 acre-feet per year
by the end of 2016. It suggested seeking funding to bolster a water-efficient
home appliance rebate program, offering incentives to retrofit apartment
complex laundries, and install water-saving devices in low-income housing.
Marina Coast, according to the
report, should install real-time water use tracking technology, and hire
additional personnel to expand conservation efforts. The report also said the
district should hire a permanent general manager and district engineer
immediately in an effort to stabilize its operations, while providing mandatory
and ongoing training for its board members.
Both districts should track new
advancements in conservation and desalination, and employ new technology on
both when feasible, according to the report, and should commit to reaching a
source water agreement on the groundwater replenishment project.
The two agencies’ boards are
expected to respond to several of the report’s findings and recommendations
within 90 days of the report’s release.
June
5, 2015
Monterey
Herald
By Jim
Johnson
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