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PEBBLE BEACH CO. PROPOSAL TO SELL "ENTITLED" WATER

Monterey County Herald January 6, 2002

P.B. Co. Proposal would help taxpayers

By William R. Gianelli
Guest Commentary ( printed in the COMMENTARY Section )

Recently, The Herald has printed letters from people who have been critical of the proposal of Pebble Beach Company to release a portion of its water allocation to other water users in Del Monte forest and other areas of the Peninsula. The subject requires further clarification.

Several years ago Pebble Beach Company and the golf courses within Del Monte Forest recognized there was a critical shortage of potable water on the Peninsula and that one way to partially alleviate that shortage was to reclaim the sewage which originates within the Forest and Carmel and to use it on the Forest golf courses.

At no expense to the taxpayer a $33 million dollar bond was sold to cover the cost of the reclamation project to irrigate the golf courses.

Repayment of the bonds was guaranteed by the Pebble Beach company in return for which it was allocated approximately one-half of the potable water saved for its future water use within the Forest. The other half of potable water saved was given to the Water Management for allocation to other uses on the Peninsula. In recent years the Forest golf Courses hve been irrigated with about two-thirds reclaimed water and one-third potable water.

The goal of the Del Monte Forest golf courses is to irrigate their courses with 100 percent reclaimed water provided the quantity and quality of such water is adequate for their purposes. This can be accomplished by providing for off stream storage in the Forest and upgrading the quality of reclaimed water at the Carmel treatment plant.

The cost of this work would be about $15 mission dollars which could be repaid from the sale of potable water released by the Pebble Beach Company from its original allocation. Such a project would benefit the Peninsula in several ways.

It would allow the golf courses and green-belt areas of the Forest to irrigate with reclaimed water, and possibly allow adjacent areas such as the Pacific Grove golf course and cemetery to also be so irrigated; it would free-up potable water for domestic use; and it would essentially eliminate the discharge of sewer effluent from the Carmel Plant to the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary.

All the work could be accomplished with no cost to the taxpayer if the P.B. Co. proposal is allowed to be implemented.

William R. Gianelli lives in Pebble Beach