August 20, 2005

Larry Foy, Chair
MPWMD Board of Directors
P.O. Box 85
Monterey, CA 93942

Subject: Town Hall Meeting on Water Supply Projects

Dear Mr. Foy and Members of the Board of Directors:

The League of Women Voters of the Monterey Peninsula studied water in 1982 and updated the study in 1995 and 2003. The League supports measures insuring an adequate supply of water; coordinating water resource planning with land use planning to provide for future needs without encouraging nonsustainable growth; protecting the natural environmental in areas of both water origin and water use; and reserving stream flows for protection of fish, wildlife habitat, and the riparian environment. Additionally, we support policies that create a hierarchy of customers having a priority claim to water service with existing customers having the first priority.

We urge the Board to complete the work that was begun on the MPWMD long-term water supply/desalination project. If the environmental impacts of the project can be mitigated, it would address the immediate legal requirement of the State Water Resources Control Board to reduce pumping from the Carmel River

The desal project combined with aquifer storage and recovery in the Seaside Basin could result in a long-term water supply that meets the needs of our community within existing natural resource and infrastructure constraints such as growing traffic congestion. Most importantly, we believe that a project that addresses the immediate needs of local residents has the greatest chance of community support and voter approval.

Finally, the League supports the requirement for voter approval for any major water supply project. Keeping in mind the need for an informed electorate, we recommend that one of the alternatives evaluated in the EIR for the MPWMD project be the Cal-Am proposal and that the EIR include a cost/benefit analysis of the alternatives.

Sincerely,
     Marilyn Maxner, President