Signal Booster: Wading into the Monterey Peninsula Water War

Depending on how much it rains this winter, Monterey County is staring water rationing in the face. Meanwhile, Christopher Neely of the Monterey County Weekly studies the system that distributes what the Washington, D.C., group Food and Water Watch once described as the most expensive water in the nation.

In 2018, Measure J ordered the public takeover of local water company CalAm; what came prior to that is described by Neely as a quarter century of “failed projects, broken alliances, long-simmering resentments, lawsuits and attempted and ongoing buyouts.” The future Monterey County water scheme includes recycling, and a small desalination plant in Seaside. The past involved wholesale draining of the Carmel River—Monterey’s primary water source for 140 years. But the Endangered Species Act is forcing an end to that. By the end of 2021, use of Carmel River water will be cut in half to protect almost locally extinct steelhead.

Angler/conservationionist Brian LeNeve of the Carmel River Steelhead Association is among those trying to protect these fish. They begin life as rainbow trout, then travel to the ocean, and quadruple (or quintuple) in size to become a true steelhead. To save them, LeNeve offers a solution that area man Clint Eastwood couldn’t have phrased more tersely: “Get rid of your goddamn lawn.”