Inside baseball: Marina Coast Water District and Fort Ord

How much water the Fort Ord Reuse Authority gets for development from the Marina Coast Water District is the subject of a strongly-worded letter from district vice-president Peter Le.

In the letter to FORA, provided to the media, Le suggests the district will cut what it promised to FORA by roughly 600 acre-feet a year.

His reasoning was the authority — by not formally approving the district’s plan for a desalination plant at its recent meeting — must no longer want most of its water for the former Army base from desalination.

The most-recent FORA resolution from 2008 stated 3,000 acre-feet of water from the district would come from desalinated water. A 2005 agreement said 1,500 acre-feet would come from recycled water and 1,500 acre-feet from desal.

Assuming previous agreements are null and void, he now suggests the district drops down to 2,400 acre-feet a year (half from recycled water and half from desal).

District interim general manager Bill Kocher said the letter did not go before the district's board but noted that Le is the district's representative on FORA.

“The FORA Board’s action to not act on a recommendation regarding the MCWD water augmentation plan left many questions, particularly for MCWD who is trying to move ahead on fulfilling its obligation to provide additional water to the Ord Community for its build-out plans,” he said.

FORA attorney Jon Giffen said Wednesday the authority had yet to receive the letter.

The correspondence comes after the authority, once again, declined to endorse the district’s plans at its Friday meeting, largely because of legal concerns.

There is still an ongoing lawsuit from the Marina Coast Water District against California American Water regarding test wells for its planned desalination plant. A preliminary injunction hearing for the lawsuit will be heard May 1 in Santa Cruz County Superior Court.

“A leopard hasn’t changed its spot,” Cal Am attorney Tony Lombardo said of the district at the FORA meeting. “They are still doing everything they can possibly do to stop the Monterey Peninsula from finding out if this is a viable water source.”

Monterey County supervisor Jane Parker asked how the district's plan ended up on the agenda again after the board failed to endorse it at its previous meeting. Chair Frank O’Connell said it was an honest mistake that the item appeared as an “action” item instead of just information.

Del Rey Oaks Mayor Jerry Edelen continued to use strong language with the district for potentially blocking Cal Am’s effort to produce more water.

“It looks like (the district) is trying to cut Cal Am’s throat in court,” Edelen said.

Supervisor Dave Potter urged the agencies to stay out of court while Salinas Mayor Joe Gunter argued everyone needed to find a way to get along.

“You’re going to have to figure out how to work together,” Gunter said. “And maybe you’ll put your slant wells right next to each other and work it out and build a bigger, better desalination plant. You need to stop acting like bullies, children.”