In an interesting turn of events, the Sixth District Court of Appeal reversed an initial trial court’s judgment, which held that Monterey County’s permitting of a desalination plant was unjustified. This conclusion came in response to a writ set aside by the court against the investor-owned public utility/water supplier California-American Water Company (“Cal-Am”), as documented in an opinion published on October 4, 2023. Cal-Am’s aim behind the desalination plant and related facilities was to serve as a substantial component of its Water Supply Project. Read More
Monterey County’s approval for the project was substantiated on the basis of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) prepared for it by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). CPUC’s EIR had been prepared with careful consideration of the environmental consequences of the entire water supply project, which crossed multiple jurisdictions.
Critics of the project primarily argued, among other issues, that Monterey County contravened the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in two key ways. Firstly, by deciding against drafting a subsequent EIR and secondly, by supposedly positing an inadequate ‘Statement of Overriding Considerations.’ Both arguments were dismissed by the Sixth District.
In summary, the verdict of the appellate court manifestly supports Monterey County and Cal-Am, affirming that the County was indeed a responsible agency in approving the desalination plant’s construction in light of CPUC’s EIR. It shed light on the crucial role of EIRs within multi-component, cross-jurisdictional projects, in addition to issuing a judicial rejection to CEQA challenges based on the decision of Monterey County to forego a Subsequent EIR and an allegedly inadequate statement of overriding considerations.