Claim: Cal Am’s desal is the only answer to our need for more water

Facts: The Monterey Herald and LandWatch Monterey County both report that if Cal Am’s $300 million desal plant can be built; our already outrageous water rates will double! We can’t afford this water.

The Pure Water Monterey Expansion of recycled water is a better solution for now. It meets our current needs at less than half the cost and does so in time to comply with the Cease and Desist Order (CDO) deadline. It’s environmentally superior and uses only 25% of the energy needed for desal. A publicly owned regional desal plant should be considered in the future.

Cal Am’s project is now being legally challenged because it has no water rights to the source water for its proposed desal plant (draws Marina’s brackish groundwater, not ocean water). This will cause more delay and raise costs further. It’s not the solution Cal Am presents it to be.