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Pipeline completed to increase peninsula water sources

Monday, the start of a change to how the Monterey Peninsula gets its water.

California America Water has completed their 7-mile pipeline going from Seaside through Monterey to Pacific Grove, serving 100-thousand customers.

“A much more diverse portfolio of supply sources, which help protects us from drought and make the system more reliable and sustainable,” said Cal Am Spokesperson, Catherine Stedman.

This projects allows Cal Am to stop relying on the Carmel River, where they currently get about two-thirds of their supply. The state said they have to cut back.

Instead, the Monterey Pipeline will help with the storage of Winter river runoff, sending it back into the Seaside Basin. And in the Summer, for the first time, a majority of the water will go North to South. Much of that is planned to come from recycling project Pure Water Monterey, starting next year. And by 2021, the proposed, but disputed, plant in Marina.

“Once we get passed water restrictions, with this infrastructure, we will be able to provide the water that people need, that hotels need, that businesses need,” Rudy Fischer, a Pacific Grove City Councilmember said. Fischer is also a board member of Monterey One Water.

But will it be cheaper? A previous study showed people on the peninsula pay the highest water bills in the nation – more than one thousand dollars annually. While a success on other fronts, this pipeline likely won’t lower utility bills.

“You move from a low cost supply that in this case was unlawful, pumping from the river, to manufactured water, inevitably the price is going to be a little higher,” Dave Stoldt, General Manager of the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District, said.

And on the ballot this November is Measure J, asking the Water Management District to study if a public, taxpayer funded, takeover of the Cal Am system is possible. It is an expensive ordeal with Cal Am saying the pipeline alone has a 50 million dollars price tag, and the overall number is even higher.

“Our assets are worth over a billion dollars. It would include the desalination project. It would include this pipeline,” Stedman said.

Their opponents behind the measure, Public Water Now, say the billion dollar figure is inflated, and the final settlement is usually a lot less than what the private utilities ask for.

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