More on the Link Between Desalination and Unsustainable Growth

A few receivers of my request did not feel I made the link between the Marin desalination plant and unsustainable growth sufficiently clear.

Thank you for your considered response. You have raised a number of issues that I would like to take one at a time.
(1) Let me start with the “tying the hands” of the incumbent MMWD board. These are of course their words and their reason for putting a competing initiative on the ballot, one that allows the ratepayers to vote without tying the board’s hands.

When the incumbent MMWD board was presented with opposition to their plans they proceeded to approve a faulty EIR. That matter is now in the courts. When presented with the possibility of a petition drive they did nothing. It was only after the voters collected over 18,000 signatures did the incumbent MMWD board act. They had three options, accept the initiative’s mandate and give the voters their opportunity to vote before any new construction spending, place an immediate voter approval measure on the ballot, or they could put an alternative and competing measure on the ballot. They chose the third option, Measure S, to confuse the voters.

The salient differences between Measure T, T for thrifty, and S, S for spendthrift, are when the voters get to be heard, before or after more construction spending on the desalination plant. The incumbent MMWD board wants the freedom to spend up to $30 million towards the total $115 million for the plant. Just whose hands are being tied? Lets not forget that the San Ramon-Dublin Utility District fully completed their desalination project prior to hearng the voices of the voters. That facility is mothballed never having been operated.

(2) Your broad point regarding the watersheds of the Eel and Russian rivers and the groundwater basin of the Santa Rosa Plain is a great opening for addressing regional water planning. A Marin desalination plant is not part of the solution. Our planning and building codes need to be tightened greatly. They need to incorporate no new water use and extremely low carbon use. Both of these goals are attainable with current technology.

I fully admire the passion for protecting the Russian and Eel River watersheds. Many in Marin love the San Francisco Bay as well. It will be harmed by the proposed desalination plant’s discharge. The Potter Valley diversion does need to be stopped. In the long run it has not helped the Russian River watershed and apparently it is endangering that of the Eel River.

One of the members of the Sonoma County Water Coalition has presented a plan for a desalination plant for the Laguna Santa Rosa treatment plant. It like the Orange County plant could be used to recharge the Santa Rosa Plain Basin instead of sending the water to the Geysers. Before I would be comfortable with such a solution I would first insist on two conditions. As mentioned above the first would be that our planning and building standards be improved. Secondly I, as would most people, would want factual proof that the water would bee free of pharmaceuticals and other micro pollutants. Here is where your argument for comparative energy use is applicable. The Dublin-San Ramon plant gets 65 percent of its needed energy from its off-gassed methane and a fuel cell. With solar cells it could be totally carbon free.

(3) But Marin has options that do not require desalination. Two of our seven reservoirs are not currently being used. There is extensive leakage from the system that we have. And finally the people of MMWD love to conserve, so much so that MMWD has raised the rates 39 percent in recent years. The Fryer Report, found on the Marin Water Coalition website, provides the details.

For mush less than the full $400 million 30 year cost of construction, finance, and operation the same 5 million gallons a day could be had. But that is just the first phase of the proposed desalination plant. Fully developed its 15 mgd would increase the current 24 mgd MMWD water supply by 3/5. That is not drought protection, but an open door to unsustainable development. And that would be truly tying the hands of Marin, preventing the necessary changes that are required for reducing our GHG footprint. Melted ice caps will destroy the Eel and Russian Rivers, San Francisco Bay, and much of California.

Development along SMART and Desalination in Marin

Today there is a David versus Goliath struggle being waged in Marin. It is an extension of one that is underway throughout our state. It is an extension of our regional drive for sustainable development and greenhouse gas reduction. Marin’s Measure T was put on the ballot by over 18,000 signatures because the Marin Municipal Water District board refused to listen to its constituents. The local Democratic, Republican, and Green Parties of Marin have each endorsed T and oppose the dirty trick Measure S. Be assured that politicians who have supported the 2009 California Water Bill and the recently removed Proposition 18 are fighting this grassroots effort with all of their political and monetary clout. There is now a lobbing group, CalDesal, comprised of water agencies across the State to affect the public’s right to vote on water desalination and streamline regulatory control over this technology.

Measure T needs your support to assure its passage. We need $6,500 for leaflets and yard signs. We need $20,500 for mailers to contact targeted likely voters. As Marin and Sonoma Counties are poised for new development, we need to be cautious of what problems we create for the future. It has only been the economic crash of these past few years that has prevented the rush.

The fight over MMWD’s plan to build a desalination plant is in contrast to the sustainable planning now occurring in Sonoma County, as exemplified by Sonoma Mountain Village. Creating development plans that include proximity to transportation, employment, housing and living amenities is essential to sustainable planning, as are the components of the buildings and their planned energy and water use. Two years ago the voters agreed to create a sustainable mode of transportation that will link Southern Marin to Northern Sonoma. The seventy-two mile SMART corridor will provide the skeletal structure upon which we will make development decisions. This will provide the economic engine for the twenty-first century on Northern California’s coast. If our development plans build into them the doubling or quadrupling of energy use for the already largest user of energy in Marin County then we will have failed our future.

There are many environmental and economic reasons for not building the bay water desalination plant. We cannot let this water manufacturing plant go forward. But for me the most important reason is that it will subvert our efforts to promote Green Building Standards that the world can live with. Marin should be reducing our greenhouse gas emissions not planning to increase them. This is why I am devoting my efforts this election for Measure T and candidates that support it. Please visit the website below and give generously to our collective future,

Thank you, Dan Monte
to contribute to the Measure T campaign and our sustainable future:
[ https://www.completecampaigns.com/FR/contribute.asp?campaignid=PRTVAS ]