Quarterly Water Supply Strategy and Budget Report
California
American Water Main Water
Distribution System:
October – December 2020
1. Management Objectives
The Monterey Peninsula Water Management District (District) desires to maximize the long-term production potential and protect the environmental quality of the Carmel River and Seaside Groundwater Basins. In addition, the District desires to maximize the amount of water that can be diverted from the Carmel River Basin and injected into the Seaside Groundwater Basin while complying with the instream flow requirements recommended by the National Marine Fisheries (NMFS) to protect the Carmel River steelhead population. To protect the River, ASR water banked in the winter will be recovered in the summer months. To accomplish these goals, a water supply strategy and budget for production within California American Water’s (CalAm’s) Main and Laguna Seca Subarea water distribution systems is reviewed quarterly to determine the optimal strategy for operations, given the current hydrologic and system conditions, and legal constraints on the sources and amounts of water to be produced.
2. Quarterly Water Supply Strategy: October - December 2020
On September 5, 2019 staff from the District, CalAm, State Water Resources Control Board’s Division of Water Rights (SWRCB-DWR), and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) met and discussed the proposed water supply strategy and related topics for upcoming quarter. National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) was unable to attend, but was given to opportunity to provide guidance into the process.
Carmel River Basin CalAm will operate
its wells in the Lower Carmel Valley in a downstream to
upstream sequence,
as needed to meet customer
demand. For this quarterly water budget, it was agreed that CalAm will
continue to produce water from the Lower Valley Wells as
appropriate when in the “Low Flow” regime. To the maximum extent,
pumping will be shifted away from the river wells and Seaside native water will
be used to meet the demand in the fall months.
Any new sources of water reduce the water available to be pumped from
the river on a one to one basis consistent with SBO 2016-0016. Upon the first storms, MPWMD and CalAm will
cooperate to begin preparation for ASR season and when instream flow
requirements are met, Carmel River water injection will begin. On December 1st, ASR permits allow
for diversion to injection if instream flow requirements are met.
Seaside
Groundwater Basin CalAm will continue
to produce water from the Coastal Subareas of the Seaside
Basin during this period,
as necessary to meet system demand
and reduce pumping from the Carmel River wells. There is
also a goal to produce 25 AF of treated brackish groundwater from the Sand City Desalination Plant in each of these three months.
It is recognized that, based on recent historical use, CalAm’s production from the Laguna Seca Subarea during this period cannot be reduced to zero, as is set by
CalAm’s allocation specified in the Seaside Basin Adjudication Decision.
In
this context, the production targets represent the maximum monthly production
that should occur so that CalAm remains
within its adjudicated allocation for the Laguna Seca Subarea.
Under the amended Seaside Basin Decision, CalAm is allowed
to use production savings
in the Coastal Subareas to offset
over-production in the Laguna
Seca Subarea. However, the quarterly budget was developed so that
CalAm would produce all native groundwater in the Coastal Subareas and Laguna
Seca production would be over the Adjudication allotment.
U:\staff\Boardpacket\2019\20190916\PublicHearings\12\Item-12-Exh-C.docx