Our Commitment to Meeting Long-Term Water Supply Needs
Water to Meet Current Customer Needs. The District has ample water to meet current customer needs and continues to collaborate with our neighbors to ensure reliable water supplies for the District and the region.
Planning for a Secure, Sustainable Supply
Marina Coast Water District maintains and periodically updates its water resources strategy to identify supply reliability and security challenges, long-term water needs, and optimum future sources of supply. The evolving water resource strategy considers new information and changing conditions, such as:
Water to Meet Low-Income Housing Requirements. The State has mandated new low-income housing requirements through the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), and these new units will increase water demand within the District's service area and throughout the region.
Water to Meet Planned and Approved Growth. The District provides water for 10 land use jurisdictions within its service area and MCWD is obligated to provide water as available to meet approved land use planning projections.
Water to Maintain and Protect the Groundwater Basin. Marina Coast Water District is the designated Groundwater Sustainability Agency for the Monterey Subbasin, part of the Salinas Valley Groundwater Basin. The District collaborates with the Salinas Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency to manage the two Subareas within the Monterey Subbasin. The District is responsible for the sustainable management of the Marina Subbasin, including actions to mitigate over-pumping and seawater intrusion.
Water to Ensure Water Security in the Face of Climate Change. Climate change will lead to increasingly extreme weather, both drought and flood. Higher temperatures will increase the water needed by plants and landscapes. Rising ocean levels may increase seawater intrusion into the Groundwater Basin unless mitigations are put in place. An adaptive management strategy that includes multiple source options and management techniqes will enhance supply reliability and security.
MCWD's Water Supply Portfolio
To meet long-term water needs, the District maintains and is working to enhance a portfolio of water sources to ensure there is always enough water to meet customer and environmental needs. In addition to the sources listed below, there may be other sources identified in the future that could be added to the portfolio.
Groundwater Provides Our Primary Water Source. MCWD's primary water source is the Monterey Subbasin of the Salinas Valley Groundwater Basin, which supplies many other communities beyond our service area. The groundwater Basin is carefully managed to ensure long-term sustainability. Groundwater from wells is disinfected to ensure that drinking water is always clean and safe.
Recycled Water is an Important Supplemental Source that Frees Up Potable Supplies for Other Uses. MCWD is a partner in the Regional Advanced Purified Recycled Water Treatment Plant (RTP). The District currently delivers 132 million gallons per year of recycled water to Seaside through the District's dedicated recycled water pipelines for use on the City's Blackhorse and Bayonet golf courses. The District owns additional recycled water capacity to meet growing needs as the City develops.
MCWD's Reservation Road Ocean Water Desalination Plant is Being Refurbished. MCWD's Reservation Road desalination treatment plant was placed into operation in January 1996 and operated for seven years. Since then, the plant has been on standby. Over time, technology has improved significantly, and the District is refitting and refurbishing the plant in preparation for placing it back online in 2025.
Refitting and restarting an existing desalination plant makes cost-efficient use of existing facilities and will provide water that meets the water needs of several cities and communities with the District.
Evaluating Building A New Brackish Water Desalination Plant at Armstrong Ranch. Brackish water is less salty than seawater but more salty than fresh water. It often occurs inland from the ocean where freshwater and seawater mix. Marina Coast Water District owns property within Armstrong Ranch, adjoining the existing Monterey One Water advanced recycled water treatment facilities where brackish water is located.
The Armstrong Ranch Brackish Water Treatment and Testing Facility is planned to be constructed in two phases. Phase 1 will include building a pilot facility to produce a new potable water supply in 2025. Phase 2 will investigate alternative treatment technologies and strategies to optimize potable water production. MCWD plans to maintain the pilot testing facility as a research site and make it available to the industry for future technology and operational research and testing.
The District's Water Supply Plan aligns with state strategies designed to encourage new technologies that convert the ocean supply to potable water, including:
- Governor's Water Supply Strategy – Adapting to a Hotter, Drier Future.
- State Water Resilience Portfolio (N-10-9).
- Ocean Plan Amendment.
- Coastal Commission's Sea Level Rise Policy Guidance that preferences small, decentralized desal plants.
