Salinas Valley property owners and residents will now get a chance to formally influence the management of the Monterey County-owned Lake San Antonio and Lake Nacimiento reservoirs.
Earlier this month, the county and the county Water Resources Agency reached a settlement agreement with the Salinas Valley Water Coalition that will establish a technical advisory committee that will deliberate and make recommendations to the county water agency on how the reservoirs should be operated in an extended drought.
The advisory committee is expected to include representatives of the coalition, the water agency and any other interested stakeholders.
The Nov. 15 agreement also includes a process for evaluating whether additional water releases from the reservoirs should be made during the critical winter months.
“The processes for considering drought operations and winter reservoir releases will be open and transparent,” said a joint release issued by the county and the coalition. “Interested members of the public are encouraged to participate in these processes.”
The coalition is an agricultural industry advocacy group that sued the county twice in 2017 alleging the water agency had unlawfully operated the reservoirs, especially during 2014-2015 at the height of a four-year drought, in a way that had deprived the group’s members of water to which they were entitled through the Salinas Valley Water Project they are paying for via property taxes.
It argued the agency improperly reduced water releases from the reservoirs to the Salinas River from June 2014 to May 2015 in a way that restricted groundwater recharge in the Salinas Valley, and had other harmful outcomes.
Flow in the river during much of the drought was inadequate for operation of the Salinas Valley Water Project, which includes the so-called rubber dam on the river designed to divert water for farmland irrigation.
Coalition President Nancy Isakson said with regard to the settlement, “While this has been a lengthy process, the (coalition) board believes it is necessary and worthwhile to hold the (water agency) accountable to manage and operate the reservoirs in a manner promised to the voters/landowners in (the Salinas Valley) that doesn’t harm landowners’ riparian and overlying water rights and provides protection for our fisheries.
“We realize this is just the beginning and going forward there will be continued collaboration with the (water agency) to complete the terms of the agreement. We believe the agreement benefits the entire Salinas Valley and provides an opportunity for others to work with us to fulfill the terms of the agreement. All terms of the agreement will be fulfilled using the best science available and by complying with the law.”
Neither side admits any wrongdoing or liability as part of the agreement, and both sides are responsible for their own attorneys’ fees and legal costs and will split state water board staff costs for conducting a review that found the water agency had not violated its own rules as alleged by the coalition.
