Quarterly Water Supply Strategy
and Budget Report
California American Water
Main Water Distribution
System:
January to March 2024
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 Service (NMFS) to protect the Carmel River steelhead population. Additionally the QWB seeks to shift a large component of pumping from the Carmel River to the Seasude Groundwater Basin to recover injected PWM water. To accomplish these goals, a water supply strategy and budget for production within California American Water’s (Cal-Am’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: January to March 2024
On December 6, 2023 the Quarterly Water Budget Group which includes staff from the District, CalAm, the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS), 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.
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. The group planned that WY
2024 would be a normal water year and storms will bring up in stream flows to
support ASR injections and Table 13 diversions. ASR injections are limited to 11 Acre Feet
per day because ASR 3 and ASR 4 are scheduled to be used to recover PWM water
and therefore will not be available to support injection of excess Carmel River
water. It was agreed that CalAm would plan to produce water
from the wells in the
Lower Carmel Valley to support system demand. PWM Recovery will be the primary source to
meet system demand. December is the
first month permits allow for ASR and Table 13 Diversions. If storms in December bring River conditions
within permit conditions, Cal-Am will use the increase the production from the
Carmel Valley wells to provide water for injection into the Seaside Basin.
Seaside
Groundwater Basin Cal-Am has shut off the
Upper Carmel Valley wells and turned on the Seaside wellfield. The Seaside wells are currently being used to
recover PWM injected water and Native Seaside Groundwater. PWM water
will be recovered at the same rate injected this quarter with the goal
maximizing PWM as a source to meet system demand and shift pumping away from
the Carmel River Basin. 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 may not 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. On February 5, 2020 the Seaside Groundwater Basin Watermaster Board voted
to allow Cal-Am to claim carryover credits to cover the pumping over the Laguna
Seca allotment in the interim prior to establishing a
physical solution. Because of this
decision, the Quarterly Water Budget Group decided that the table presenting
the Laguna Seca allotment of zero would no longer be
necessary as the Watermaster is now planning to handle the pumping over
allotment with a different mechanism.