6. Filing of New Application by Cal-Am

The Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project now sought by Cal-Am in A.12-04-019, in lieu of the Regional Desalination Project, is described in that application as follows:¹⁸

The Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project will consist of slant intake wells, brackish water pipelines, the desalination plant, product water pipelines, brine disposal facilities, and related appurtenant facilities. Depending on the availability of water from the Groundwater Replenishment Project, the desalination plant will be sized at either 9.0 mgd or 5.4 mgd. California American Water is in the process of securing an approximately 46-acre parcel of land located just to the northwest of the MRWPCA's wastewater treatment plant as the site for the proposed desalination plant. California American Water is also working to secure permanent easements on an approximately 376-acre parcel of land located due west of its proposed desalination plant site for the slant intake wells. California American Water will be using a series of slant wells located west of the sand dunes to draw ocean water and potentially a small amount of groundwater from the ground. The slant wells will be approximately 700 to 800 feet in length and will feature several hundred feet of screen below the ocean floor and seaward of the mean high tide mark. The final layout and configuration will be based on the results of additional groundwater modeling that will be completed as part of the Commission's environmental review and as may be required by the California Coastal Commission or for final design.

The Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project also incorporates the California American Water-only facilities that the Commission previously approved in D.10-12-016. [Footnote omitted.] The California American Water-only facilities consist of the Transfer Pipeline, the Seaside Pipeline, the Monterey Pipeline, the Terminal Reservoir, the ASR Pipeline, the ASR Recirculation and Backflush Pipelines, the ASR Pump Station and the Valley Greens Pump Station. In a significant departure from historic operation, supply from the desalination plant portion of the Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project will enter the California American Water distribution system at the metering station from the north through the Transfer Pipeline. The current configuration of the distribution system does not allow water to be conveyed from the north, to customers on the southern portion of the Peninsula. The California American Water-only facilities will convey water between the northern and southern portions of the Monterey County District. The source of the flow from the north to the south will be either the desalination plant portion of the Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project, and/or the extraction of flows from the ASR system located in Seaside Basin.

The Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project will be owned and operated by California American Water. (The Groundwater Replenishment Project will be publicly owned.) California American Water expects to utilize a design/build process for the desalination plant, and a design/bid/build process for the brackish water pipelines, the product water pipeline and the related pipelines. For the slant intake wells, the California American Water will determine whether a design/build or design/bid/build process is appropriate once the environmental review of the affected area has been completed.

This newly proposed project is represented by Cal-Am to be "a modified version of the North Marina Project" analyzed in the EIR certified in 2009 in
A.04-09-019.¹⁹

MCWD, seeking to perpetuate the Regional Desalination Project and asserting claims of right under the related Water Purchase Agreement, filed both a motion to intervene and a motion to dismiss, with supporting documents, on April 30, 2012.

¹⁸ Application of Cal-Am for Approval of the Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project and Authorization to Recover All Present and Future Costs in Rates (filed April 23, 2012) at 7-8.

¹⁹ Id. at 22: "The main modifications are the locations of the intake slant wells and the desalination treatment plant. Due to these revised locations, a portion of the product water pipeline or finished water main will need to be routed on a previously
un-surveyed corridor."