Monterey One Water Overview

Monterey One Water is the sewer treatment provider in northern Monterey County. Water used in households and businesses—for washing dishes, doing laundry, flushing toilets, taking showers—is sent to the Monterey One Water Regional Treatment Plant, where it is cleaned and safely reintroduced into the environment.

Monterey One processes water from generated by 250,000 residents and almost 7,000 business in its service area, which equals about 17 million gallons of wastewater being pumped into the facility each day. The company maintains 30 miles of underground pipes and 29 pump stations. Water is reintroduced into the enviroment through regulated ocean discharge, used as non-potable recycled water for irrigation of raw food crops, or purified further to produce potable recycled water for groundwater replenishment.

Monterey One Water is a public utility governed through a joint powers authority that was formed in 1979. Each of its 11 member city and districts appoints one representative to the M1W Board. Each entity notifies the agency in writing of the appointment of its representative. No set term is designated by M1W. Current membership on the board includes elected officials from eight cities/districts, a representative from the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, one member (non-elected) who is appointed by the Monterey County Board of Supervisors to represent the Boronda County Sanitation District, and an ex-officio representative from the U.S. Army.