GENERAL INFORMATION

All owners of water producing facilities within the District are required to report the amount produced each year. The purpose of the program is to provide annual aggregate estimates of water production from well owners in the various ground water production zones in the District. The largest purveyor of water in the District is the California-American Water Company (Cal-Am). Cal-Am owns and operates two dams and over 30 wells in Carmel Valley and Seaside. In addition, there are over 650 privately owned wells reporting production throughout the District. The information provided is used to make decisions regarding management of the limited water resources of the Monterey Peninsula area. The reports are also used to prepare an annual water production summary report. Preliminary compilation of production reports from Water Year 2003 (October 1, 2002 through September 30, 2003) indicates that 19,565 AF were produced from all sources in the District, which is about two percent less than in Water Year 2002. The report breaks down production based on the source areas and by reporting method.

Cal-Am’s reported production from all sources in Water Year 2003 was 15,140 AF. The District Water Allocation Program sets limits for production from within the Monterey Peninsula Water Resources System (MPWRS). The MPWRS consists of the Carmel River, its tributaries, the Carmel River Alluvial Aquifer and the Seaside Coastal Subareas. Cal-Am production from the MPWRS was 14,675 during Water Year 2003, well below the limit of 17,641 AF imposed by the District Water Allocation Program.

State Water Resources Control Board Order No. 95-10 limits Cal-Am production from the Carmel River Basin to 11,285 AF per year. In Water Year 2003, Cal-Am produced 11,198 AF of water from the Carmel River Basin, which is 287 AF below the limit. An additional 166 AF of water that was produced from Cal-Am wells in Carmel Valley were not counted against the production limit because that water was conveyed to the District’s Seaside Basin Aquifer Storage and Recovery project for storage in the Seaside Basin.

Well owners were formerly allowed to report water production by one of three methods: Water Meter, Land Use, or Power Consumption Correlation. In March 1990, the District adopted Ordinance No. 48 requiring installation of water meters on all large production wells (i.e., those producing 20 or more acre feet per year). In November 1991, District rules were further amended with the adoption of Ordinance No. 56, which extended the metering requirement to all existing medium production wells (i.e., those producing between 5 and 20 acre-feet per year) and all new wells within the District. Ordinance No. 56 also eliminated the Power Consumption Correlation reporting method. In Water Year 2003, 99 percent of the reported water production was metered.