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Sand City Desalination Plant Needs a New Well to Maximize Its Capacity
After twelve years, Sand City and California American Water Company (Cal Am) are still working their way through the government approval process to drill a new well to supply brackish shallow aquifer water for the city's small desalination plant. On May 6, representatives of your Chamber of Commerce urged the Sand City Council to press the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) Division of Drinking Water (DDW) to speed up the process to approve this well.
In May 2005, the California Coastal Commission approved a permit for a new desalination plant in Sand City, and the plant began operating in 2010. The maximum capacity of the plant is 300 acre-feet per year (AFY). Source water supply comes from four wells: a pair located on Vista del Mar Street and another pair located along Tioga Avenue. The wells are about 30-40 feet deep and extract brackish water from the Aromas Aquifer. The well pairs are located about 1500 feet apart as a deliberate supply strategy to extract water with different levels of salinity to produce an ideal concentration for the facility. There is also a brine discharge well located beneath Vista del Mar Street.
In the mid-2010s, drought conditions had increased the salinity of those wells and reduced production amounts of potable water at the desalination plant. In addition, coastal erosion was putting these wells at risk. In response, Cal Am began the process in 2014 of getting approval for new wells farther inland. Water from those wells would be blended with the water from the four older wells to produce a less saline water supply for desalination. The capacity of the desalination plant would remain at 300 AFY. In 2017, the California Coastal Commission approved an amendment allowing up to six new wells and associated pipelines and infrastructure. The permit was vested on February 6, 2020. Cal Am will own the wells.
Five years later, the California Division of Drinking Water is still reviewing one proposed well and trying to impose expensive and inconvenient conditions for its construction. The Sand City Council will have a future meeting agenda item to approve a letter to the SWRCB urging them to allow the new well to move forward.
Whether it's a small amount of water or a large amount of water, trying to increase supply for the Monterey Peninsula is a time-consuming, difficult, costly task.
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