Monterey Superior Court Affirms California Coastal Commission's Approval of California American Water's Monterey Desalination Project
'When this project obtained Coastal Development Permit approvals in 2022, it was the result of the California Coastal Commission's extensive, thorough evaluation, environmental review and public comment process, in addition to the more than six years of work on the project's Environmental Impact Report,' said Kevin Tilden, President of California American Water. 'The Coastal Commission judiciously conducted its review and correctly concluded that our project meets all requirements at this stage. This superior court decision confirms that this is the right project in the right location.'
The recognition of the urgency of Monterey's need for new water supply resources was heightened this week when the California Public Utilities Commission found in a proposed decision that the Peninsula could face water shortages by 2050 without implementation of the Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project.
'Courts have consistently found that the proposed project meets all conditions and that the Coastal Commission and other regulating authorities have acted appropriately in assessing the project and issuing the relevant permits,' said Tilden. 'But these failed lawsuits are still consequential. The Monterey Peninsula needs new sources of reliable, drought-resilient water supply and frivolous lawsuits cost residents money and precious time while doing nothing to further the Peninsula's water security.'
On the Monterey Peninsula, the challenge of addressing drought is heightened by State Water Resource Control Board orders that require California American Water to significantly reduce pumping from the Carmel River and prohibit the company from providing new water connections until alternate water sources are identified.
To address Monterey's need for a robust, drought-proof water supply, California American Water is pursuing the Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project. The desalination project is at the core of this solution, easing the region's severe water supply shortage, meeting the state's water supply goals and developing a new drought-proof water supply.
Desalination will also help diversify the water resources available to Monterey. Next steps in the Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project include the expansion of water recycling by public agency partners and improvements to aquifer storage and recovery. By diversifying Monterey's water supply, California American Water is preparing for whatever the future holds.
Once operational, the desalination project will bring the reliable, drought-proof water source needed to lift the Water Board's cease-and-desist order, support community demand and allow for sustainable future growth – including the development of affordable housing to meet the region's needs.
Moreover, California American Water will bring additional benefits to the community including an expansion of customer affordability programs and a $3 million community benefit for the City of Marina residents.
About American Water
American Water (NYSE: AWK) is the largest regulated water and wastewater utility company in the United States. With a history dating back to 1886, We Keep Life Flowing® by providing safe, clean, reliable and affordable drinking water and wastewater services to more than 14 million people with regulated operations in 14 states and on 18 military installations. American Water's 6,700 talented professionals leverage their significant expertise and the company's national size and scale to achieve excellent outcomes for the benefit of customers, employees, investors and other stakeholders.
For more information, visit amwater.com and join American Water on LinkedIn, Facebook, X and Instagram.
About California American Water
California American Water, a subsidiary of American Water (NYSE: AWK), provides high-quality and reliable water and wastewater services to approximately 700,000 people.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Politico
06-08-2025
- Politico
Coastal Commission vs. SpaceX: Round 2
With help from Camille von Kaenel ROCKET REMATCH: The California Coastal Commission is going for another round with Elon Musk's space company. U.S. Space Force officials will be back in front of the commission next Thursday with a proposal to double SpaceX's rocket launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base from 50 to 95 per year — and agency staff is recommending commissioners reject it. 'The simple fact remains that it is a privately owned company engaged in activities primarily for its own commercial business,' staff said in a report Friday. 'It is not a public federal agency or conducting its launches on behalf of the federal government.' The vote promises to reopen a rift between Musk and the agency after the commission rejected Space Force's previous proposal to increase SpaceX launches from 36 to 50, but cited Musk's politics and support for President Donald Trump in doing so. The commission drew a lawsuit from Musk — and a rebuke from Gov. Gavin Newsom at the time. 'I'm with Elon,' Newsom said in October after Musk sued the commission for political bias. 'You can't bring up that explicit level of politics.' The fight is flying further under the radar this time around, though. Where a bipartisan group of pro-space state and federal lawmakers spoke up for SpaceX ahead of October's vote — and environmentalists chimed in on behalf of nearby residents and wildlife they argued would be disturbed by the launches' sonic booms — that type of lobbying hasn't materialized. Neither Newsom's office nor SpaceX responded to a request for comment. Space Launch Delta 30 Commander Col. James T. Horne III, who oversees Vandenberg and Western operations, said in a statement that the commission staff recommendation doesn't change the military's 'unwavering commitment to preserving the California coastline' and that its partnership with SpaceX helps maintain 'its technological edge and strategic advantage over competitors.' The relative quiet comes amid a shifted political landscape, after Trump returned to power and Republicans swept Congress on a message of affordability and economic strength. Newsom and Democratic state lawmakers, faced with looming refinery closures and perpetually high building costs, are trying to boost in-state oil drilling and have already weakened environmental permitting for everything from wildfire fuel breaks to high-speed rail, putting environmentalists on the back foot. Jennifer Savage, California policy associate director for the Surfrider Foundation, said environmental groups are in rapid response mode, which has 'taken energy away from other things that we normally would have perhaps had more capacity to deal with.' 'I do think there's a lot of political overwhelm happening on all fronts, and that has divided people's attention perhaps more than when this first came up,' Savage said. Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire have also shaken up the commission since last year, replacing members like former Chair Justin Cummings, former Vice Chair Paloma Aguirre and alternate Gretchen Newsom (no relation to Gavin Newsom), all of whom had bemoaned Musk's behavior. And Newsom himself spent the early part of this year clipping the commission's wings, issuing several executive orders in the wake of the Los Angeles fires to suspend the Coastal Act — the 1976 law that established the commission — in an effort to fast-track rebuilding. But there's also the reality that Space Force officials moved forward with the increase from 36 to 50 last year, even after the no vote, citing federal preemption and national security considerations. Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.), one of the lawmakers who signed a bipartisan letter last year backing the launch increase, said the reality that the commission can't stop the military's plan means the issue has taken on less urgency. 'Now that the commission has proved its own irrelevance, maybe that same imperative doesn't exist,' said Kiley, who is pushing a bill that would limit state authority to review certain activities related to national security and post-disaster recovery and rebuilding. — AN Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here! MERCURY RISING: Los Angeles landlords and tenants, get your fans ready. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance Tuesday to require landlords in its unincorporated areas to keep indoor temperatures in all the rooms of rental units below 82 degrees, either by using passive cooling methods like blackout curtains or by installing air conditioners. Chair Pro Tem and Supervisor Hilda L. Solis, who introduced the measure after three years of efforts to establish an indoor heat standard, called it a 'life-saving policy that prioritizes the health and dignity of renters' amid growing evidence that rising temperatures are triggering more heat illnesses and death. She said she hoped other cities in the region would follow suit. She and her co-author, Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, agreed to partly carve out small landlords from the requirement amid pushback from the California Apartment Association and Supervisor Janice Hahn. Landlords who only own a few units will have until January 2032 to bring temperatures into check in every room of the unit; in the interim, they will have to keep only one room below 82 degrees. The compromise partly responded to a RAND report that recommended that Los Angeles policymakers should focus first on cooling one room instead of the whole unit so as not to stress the grid with new air conditioners. The ordinance takes effect in 30 days but won't be enforced until Jan. 1, 2027. — CvK AI YI YI: Artificial intelligence could be the power sector's savior — if the industry plays its cards right, California policy editor Debra Kahn writes in her latest column. Trump is canceling loan guarantees for wind-connected transmission lines and trying to block federal land from being used for wind power — but he's telling agencies to figure out how to build data centers on that same land. And those data centers need power. AI and its attendant data centers are projected to unleash the U.S. electricity industry's first net growth in 20 years. They could solve the industry's longstanding problem of spreading its growing costs across a shrinking pool of customers, if it can build fast enough to meet the demand. 'The size and the scale of what we're seeing now is unlike anything we've ever seen,' Pacific Gas & Electric Co. executive Mike Medeiros said, after PG&E got approval for a new rate structure to speed up connecting data centers to the grid. 'People will tell you — they probably haven't seen load growth like this since World War II.' — DK WHAT CANCELED PROGRAM?: The Trump administration is claiming it didn't really cancel a FEMA grant that funds disaster preparation and mitigation, four months after it shuttered the program. FEMA acting Administrator David Richardson wrote in a July 25 court declaration that 'despite FEMA's public announcements,' the agency actually didn't end the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, of which California is one of the largest beneficiaries. The document startled state and local officials and created new uncertainty about the administration's plans for helping communities with hurricanes, floods and other disasters, Thomas Frank reports for POLITICO's E&E News. Attorney General Rob Bonta joined 19 other AGs in a lawsuit last month challenging the program cancellation, arguing that the Trump administration violated congressional guidance to prioritize mitigation efforts and defied government spending authority by refusing to reallocate funds dedicated for BRIC to other programs. — AN CASTING SHADE: The Trump administration is making plans to cancel a $7 billion program funding solar projects in low-income communities across the country, people familiar with the agency's plan told POLITICO's Zack Colman, Alex Guillén and Kelsey Tamborrino on Tuesday. The termination letters are being drafted this week and could go out within days, according to a former EPA official familiar with the agency's plan granted anonymity to speak ahead of the release of the letters. The Solar for All program awarded money to state agencies, localities or nonprofit groups in almost every state to be used for residential rooftop panels, community solar developments or storage technologies — including $250 million to California state energy agencies that has yet to be distributed. Kym Meyer, litigation director at the Southern Environmental Law Center, signaled the group would pursue legal action if the administration terminates the grants. — The shipping company that delivers most of Hawaii's cars has stopped sending electric vehicles to the state because of the risk of battery fires. — Purple states are piling onto the lawsuit challenging Trump's freezing of federal electric vehicle funding. — A heat wave is coming to California this week, intensifying the wildfires already burning and raising the risk of more blazes.
E&E News
05-08-2025
- E&E News
California Coastal Commission staff recommends rejecting increased SpaceX launches
California regulators are recommending that state officials reject a U.S. military plan to increase SpaceX launches from a Southern California base, setting up another fight with Elon Musk, who previously sued the agency for political bias. What happened: California Coastal Commission staff issued a recommendation Friday that the agency's 12 appointed commissioners vote next week to reject the U.S. Space Force's application to increase SpaceX launches from Vandenberg Space Force base from 50 to 95 annually on the grounds that some of the launches don't carry military equipment and shouldn't receive state permitting exemptions. Agency staff said the Space Force failed to provide information showing that all of the launches should be considered military activity, exempting them from commission oversight, even though most won't carry military payloads. Advertisement Why it matters: It's the third time SpaceX's rocket launches have come before the Coastal Commission, which has jurisdiction over development on California's vaunted 840-mile coastline, including Vandenberg Space Force Base. The agency does not have authority over military activity, however, meaning its votes are nonbinding.
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Yahoo
Coastal Commission to decide future of unique cottage on coastal SLO County bluff
The battle isn't over about whether to save a tiny, 1965 oceanfront cottage in Cambria or replace it with a much larger structure. Two Cambria residents have appealed to the California Coastal Commission a county permit that would allow the removal of the distinctive 1,170-square foot cottage designed and built by noted designer Warren Leopold and, subsequently, for construction to proceed on a 2,419-square-foot replacement structure. The Commission will consider the appeals in August, Devon Jackson, a Commission coastal planner, told The Tribune on Monday. Those meetings will be held Aug. 13-15 in Calabasas. County supervisors voted 4-1 in June to deny similar appeals against the 2675 Sherwood Drive project and Peter and Beata Przybyslawski's plans for a new, three-bedroom, three-bath home on their shoreline property. The supervisors' vote also included removing the property's current vacation rental zoning clearance because of the close proximity of another vacation rental unit. Christina Galloway, on behalf of the North Coast Advisory Council, and Cambria resident Jeffrey Lentz opted to continue pursuing their appeals, despite an unusual email Jackson sent to them July 2. He asked if they'd be willing to pull their objections because staff is recommending that commissioners 'find no substantial issue' with the project and, in effect, deny the appeals. 'It is your right to move forward with the appeal process, but we believe there is a very low chance that the commissioners will wish to find substantial issue on a project of this nature,' Jackson wrote. 'As such, I am respectfully requesting that each of you withdraw your appeal so that we can avoid the lengthy and time-consuming process of bringing this project to hearing,' he added. There are dueling hopes for North Coast property When the original appeals were filed, their primary emphasis was to minimize environmental impacts, protect the property's scenic views for the public and help to preserve the community's character, according to Jeff Kwasny, who chairs the council's land-use committee. He said the county's interpretation of protections for the North Coast shoreline area, as outlined in the item's agenda listing, 'just considered the sand and rock and not the bluff.' 'We have policy … that says otherwise, and includes the bluff and visual resources,' he said. Property owners Peter and Beata Przybyslawski of Lake Tahoe wanted to use the new, 2,419-square-foot, three-bedroom, three-bath residence they're planning on the site as a vacation rental, just as they had the existing one-bedroom, one-bath one. Now according to the county supervisors' decision, that's not possible, and it's not known if the Przybyslawskis will want to continue to pursue their demolition and rebuild plans. Having a vacation rental there wasn't their only reason for wanting to put a different house on their oceanfront property that's about 200 feet from the entrance to the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve, Bill Isaman of San Luis Obispo, their architect and spokesman, told The Tribune in June. 'They love the property and want to live there,' he said. Solve the daily Crossword
