As Tuesday’s Regional Water Forum before the Monterey County Board of Supervisors nears and in the third year of the current California drought, the challenge of sustainable, permanent water for Monterey County remains daunting. Recent developments offer an opportunity to ground-truth various perspectives and provide new incentive to bring everyone to the table.
For the short-term, I am pleased to have helped get specific drought items in the state budget for Monterey County water agencies:
- $6.8 million in valve replacement projects for the Nacimiento and San Antonio Dams, which will allow for accessing water at lower levels in those reservoirs in the driest of times.
- $4.8 million for an additional well for Pure Water Monterey, which will allow for more water to be injected and pulled out from that project.
Since then, the federal budget allocated $20 million more for Pure Water Monterey. In addition, a competitive state grant program to support water systems that need upgrades for items such as dam safety, more water recycling, sustainable groundwater management and other drought and water resilience efforts was funded with billions of dollars at the end of legislative session. It could provide additional funds to local water systems through competitive grant processes.
Find the full article here: https://www.montereyherald.com/2022/09/17/state-sen-john-laird-clock-is…