Time Sensitive: Sign on to support Marina Citizens for Just Water's response to the MPWSP Final EIR - by end-of-day April 19
Catherine Crockett
Dear All,
Residents of Marina, Seaside, Ord communities, and the Peninsula, will be affected by Cal-Am’s Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project (MPWSP), which includes a massive desalination plant in, around and through Marina. This is not the right desal project for the Monterey Peninsula. Please attend Just Water’s meeting tonight, Tuesday April 17 at 6:30 pm, at the Marina Library, 190 Seaside Circle.
Please take a few minutes to submit an email in support of Citizen’s for Just Water’s Response to the Final Environmental Impact Report for the MPWSP. Find a copy of the letter below and under this link: https://bit.ly/2HviqXi. Copy, date, sign, and submit the letter by end of day, Thursday, April 19, 2018.
Learn more in today’s Monterey Herald Opinion piece by Marina Mayor Bruce Delgado: When it comes to water, be a good neighbor
Thank you,
Catherine Crockett
To: California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) MPWS...@esassoc.com
The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS) monte...@noaa.gov
RE: Response to the Final Environmental Impact Report for the MPWSP
Date: _____________________
Many valid concerns were voiced by the public regarding the Cal-Am slant well desalination project proposed in Marina, CA in the DEIR/EIR in 2017. The CPUC and the MPMNS have concluded that our concerns will not require any changes of significance to the 2018 FEIR/EIS. I am registering my complaints here.
I agree with all the content of the Citizens for Just Water response that includes these criticisms of the FEIR:
- COMMUNITY VALUES: The FEIR fails to address community values of equity and fairness to the residents in Marina and Ord communities that will be subjected to the most damaging environmental impacts and risks of this project. At every opportunity, Cal-Am has sought to deemphasize the location and its impact on Marina water users and has failed in public outreach to the communities most affected by the slant wells.
- NOT A REGIONAL WATER SOLUTION: This project is the clearest kind of environmental injustice as it gives precedence to a private, for-profit corporation privatizing water resources at the expense of a small socio-economically challenged community of Marina and forces further rate increases to customers already paying the highest water rates in the country.
- BRACKISH WATER IS GROUNDWATER: This project has been changed from its original permit obligation of a “subsurface ocean intake” to an illegal groundwater take from another water jurisdiction. Now the claim is that brackish water is “useless” and can therefore be taken by Cal-Am, disregarding the fact that brackish water is still groundwater for which Cal-Am has no legal water rights.
- SNOWY PLOVER WILL NOT BE PROTECTED: As stated in the FEIR: “The impacts to the plover and habitat from construction of the nine subsurface slants wells and the test well may have lasting effects on snowy plover behavior and would be significant” and “Maintenance of the subsurface slant wells every five years would result in the permanent loss of approximately 6 acres of potential western snowy plover habitat.” This is unacceptable as this very same site has been designated by the CCC for conservation in perpetuity after the cessation of the sand mining operations in 2020.
- SEAWATER INTRUSION: The FEIR concludes that this project will “reverse” seawater intrusion yet no scientific proof has been offered for this opinion that goes contrary to all accepted science of seawater intrusion and mitigation strategies. This large experimental project has the potential for devastating impacts in the region, and as such, requires rigorous academic third party research to prove that there will be absolutely “no harm”.
- USE BEST SCIENCE AVAILABLE: The FEIR falsely asserts that the AEM subsurface ground imaging data by Stanford University provides no significant additional information to the evaluation of “no harm”. By choosing a wholly inadequate technology as a preferred methodology in the face of an already available and completed state-of-the-art science study, the CPUC has denied public reassurance that the a robust investigation has been used to evaluate this project.
- UNACCOUNTED COSTS: The “feasibility” of the project is not only the issue of physical harm to a region’s water supply, but also includes harm to ratepayers who, without their approval, now must pay for the exorbitant costs of a for-profit corporation that will reap the benefits of advancing a new technology. Alternative regional and more affordable options must be transparently and objectively assessed, including the financial advantages of public agencies over private companies owning and operating such projects e.g. loan/grant/interest payment advantages for publicly owned water entities.
Further, as a resident of Marina, Ord communities, the Peninsula or Seaside, I will be affected by Cal-Am’s MPWSP, I support the efforts of the City of Marina, Marina Coast Water District, Public Water Now, and Water Plus and thereby incorporate, by reference, every comment, criticism, and deficiencies related to the FEIR identified by these entities.
Name:______________________________________________ Street: ______________________________________________________
Email:_____________________________________________________ City:_________________________________________________________