Disputes over water aren’t just in foreign countries and Monterey County.  As the US population grows it is becoming an issue in many parts of our country.  Even which has one of the more robust and reliable water systems in the world, there are or have been arguments over water between and within many of …

Several years ago I obtained a report from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) on US government concerns about water around the globe.  In reality, while the DIA was the principal drafter; the report was an intelligence community coordinated paper developed by government agencies including the Department of State, CIA, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the State Department’s …

I think everyone knows about the arguments we are having about water here in Monterey.  In fact, I have been involved in some of it.  But there are actually a lot of issues around water in other states and – especially – in other parts of the world.  Over the next six to eight weeks …

Rendering of the proposed Cal Am desal plant. So where are we now, and where do we go from here?  In March of next year the California Coastal Commission (CCC) will hold a meeting in Scotts Valley to vote on whether or not Cal Am should be allowed to put in more slant wells for …

The Colorado River supplies about 14 percent of the water used in California.  Nearly 16 million people are dependent in one fashion or another upon a river that once was considered an uninterruptible source, and the 19 years of low inflow to the Colorado Basis presents our state with a bit of a crisis.  All …

The Pacific Grove Local Water Project plant. Even the city of Pacific Grove got into the act.   We took matters into our own hands several years ago to build the Pacific Grove Local Water Project (LWP) to provide water for the municipal golf course and El Carmelo Cemetery.  The result is that we are among …

What the Canada Reservoir would have looked like in topography similar to ours. As you can see from my articles of the last several weeks, water has been an issue on the Monterey Peninsula for a long time now.  There have been projects started and stopped, votes for and against water projects, and more than …

The San Clemente dam before its removal in 2017. The 1980’s were largely a decade of cooperation among people associated with the Carmel River.  In 1979 the Carmel River Steelhead Association pointed out that the steelhead population in the river was declining.  They formed the Carmel River Watch (CREW) and started work to restore the …

At the start of 1900 the population of Monterey was 1,748; while Pacific Grove had 1,411 people.  That year was also an auspicious one for the Monterrey area, started off with the opening of something we are now famous for – our first golf course.  The Pacific Improvement Company, which just 17 years earlier had …

For the articles on water on the Monterey Peninsula I am deeply in debt to Dave Stoldt of the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District and Michael Waxer AIA, of the Carmel Development Company, and a Past President of the Carmel River Watershed Conservancy.  I reached out to them and they provided a wealth of information …