Cal-Am's Responsibilities under Order No. WR 95
The State Water Resources Control Board imposed the responsibility on Cal-Am to implement all measures in the "Mitigation Program for the District's Water Allocation Program Environmental Impact Report" not implemented by the Management District.21 The 1990 Environmental Impact Report (EIR) document referenced in the Board's decision is attached to the Management District's General Manager's testimony in this proceeding, and was adopted by the Management District's Board in November 1990. The adopted mitigation measures are summarized at Exhibit 1 to that EIR and the following page, Exhibit 2 Table, contains cost estimates for each measure. The Mitigation Program summary in Exhibit 1 is substantially similar to the list set forth in the Board's Decision 95-10 in Section 6.2 "Water Allocation Mitigation Program," so we conclude that this is the Mitigation Program which the State Water Resources Control Board has made a contingent obligation of Cal-Am.
The three headings for the mitigation measures are: fisheries, riparian vegetation and wildlife, and lagoon vegetation and wildlife. Exhibit 2 Table contains cost estimates for each measure, broken down into capital, $442,700, and annual expenses, $323,100.22
The EIR Exhibit 2 Table provides an ideal beginning point to prepare a budget for the Mitigation Program that is Cal-Am's responsibility, and is attached to today's decision for ease of reference. One way for Cal-Am to justify the amount of funding required to perform these three mitigation program elements is for Cal-Am to obtain up-to-date cost and budget data from the Management District specific to these three mitigation measures which are
Cal-Am's contingent responsibility. Those data can then be used to update the Exhibit 2 Table as the basis for justifying a forward-looking rate mechanism to fund the three mitigation measures, should the Management District cease to implement these mitigation measures.
In D.09-07-021, the Commission emphasized that to the extent Cal-Am and its ratepayers are legally responsible for Carmel River Mitigation, the Commission expected Cal-Am to meet that "responsibility in an efficient and effective manner either by its own actions or as a joint project with the Management District." If the Management District ceases to perform these mitigation measures, then Cal-Am must prepare and implement a plan to meet this responsibility.
21 State Water Resources Control Board Decision 95-10 at Ordering Paragraph 11.
22 The table also includes $6,000 for "aesthetics" which is not referenced in Order 95-10 as a Cal-Am obligation.
