Judge orders new desal EIR
Villareal says Marina Coast should take lead on project
Jim Johnson
Monterey Herald
12/22/2011
In a development certain to add even more delay to the Regional Desalination Project, a Monterey County Superior Court judge ordered a new environmental review for the proposal.
In a ruling issued Monday, Judge Lydia Villareal said the Marina Coast Water District should be the lead agency on the project and must prepare and certify an environmental impact report.
Ag Land Trust sued Marina Coast last year, alleging the district should have been the lead agency under the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, and should have been responsible for the EIR instead of the state Public Utilities Commission.
The suit alleged Marina Coast's board improperly relied on the PUC's environmental report to approve the regional project, and alleged the document failed to adequately address a number of relevant issues. The issues included the reliability of the proposed desal plant, water rights, impacts to neighboring properties and exportation of water from underground sources in the Salinas Valley.
The Ag Land Trust, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preservation of farm land, owns property near a proposed desal project well site.
Ag Land Trust attorney Michael Stamp said the ruling had the potential to allow greater public participation and scrutiny of the regional project, which has largely been created and debated in private.
"I think it means better environmental decisions and planning, and more scrutiny into this closed-door process," Stamp
said. "It brings part of the process out of the back room. This gives everyone a chance to weigh in now."
Stamp said it is an important development that public hearings on the project EIR will now occur locally, instead of at the PUC's headquarters in San Francisco, and the decisions will be made by local officials.
While Villareal didn't address specific environmental issues raised by the Ag Land Trust, Stamp said the new EIR will be required to consider alternatives, impacts and mitigations more fully. He said it would be up to Marina Coast to address the issues raised in the lawsuit through the environmental review.
"The most important aspect of this case is it now has the potential, and now a ruling to support it, to make public the issues regarding the project," he said.
Stamp suggested a new review could lead to a redesign of the project or a different location, or a reorganization involving the project partnership between Marina Coast, California American Water and the county Water Resources Agency.
Marina Coast general manager Jim Heitzman said Wednesday district officials hadn't had a chance to review the ruling. Heitzman said district officials would discuss it with the Marina Coast board and consider their options.
Cal Am spokesman Kevin Tilden said the firm was still reviewing the ruling.
County Counsel Charles McKee described the ruling as "unfortunate," and said the partners would have to evaluate its impact on the project.
"Hopefully," he said, "it will not impede progress on providing water for the Peninsula."
Stamp said he believes the litigation represents the "most expensive CEQA case in Monterey County history," noting that Marina Coast spent "hundreds of thousands of dollars" in its defense.
Local water activist George Riley said he believes Marina Coast could have a strong argument to challenge Villareal's ruling on appeal, though he said the project will be delayed.
Riley predicted it could take more than a year for Marina Coast to complete an EIR. Even if Marina Coast successfully appeals the ruling, it will take some time for it to be overturned, meaning further delay for the $400 million proposal.
