EXHIBIT 16-B
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 (Cal-Am’s) Main water distribution system 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 10, 2020 the
Quarterly Water Budget Group met and discussed
the proposed water supply strategy and related
topics for upcoming quarter. The Group consists of staff from the District,
Cal-Am, State Water Resources
Control Board’s Division of Water Rights
(SWRCB-DWR), National Marine Fisheries
Services (NMFS),
and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife
(CDFW)
Carmel River Basin Cal-Am 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 required by the “Low Flow” regime. To the maximum
extent, pumping will be shifted away from the river wells and Seaside Native
Water and recovery of Pure Water Monterey 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 Cal-Am 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 Cal-Am 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. The Water pumped from this area will be a combination of Native Seaside
Groundwater and Pure Water Monterey recovery.
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, Cal-Am’s production from the Laguna Seca Subarea
during this period cannot be reduced to zero, as is set by
Cal-Am’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 Cal-Am remains
within its adjudicated allocation for the Laguna Seca Subarea. Under the amended Seaside Basin Decision, Cal-Am 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
Cal-Am would produce all native groundwater in the Coastal Subareas and Laguna Seca production would be over the Adjudication allotment.
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