Pure Water Monterey /

Groundwater Replenishment Project

DD&A provided CEQA compliance and permitting services for the Pure Water Monterey/Groundwater Replenishment Project. Environmental services included the preparation of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and Addenda, CEQA-Plus documentation, and mitigation monitoring and construction monitoring services for Monterey One Water (M1W). The project proposed to provide high quality replacement water for existing urban supplies, and an enhanced agricultural irrigation component that would increase the amount of recycled water available to the existing Castroville Seawater Intrusion Project in northern Monterey County. The project includes an Advanced Water Purification Facility, approximately five miles of pipeline, injection wells, and diversion facilities and water sources from municipal wastewater, industrial wastewater, urban stormwater runoff, and surface water diversions.

DD&A continues to provide environmental compliance services and oversees coordination with the SWRCB-Division of Financial Assistance and U.S. EPA staff related to the project's compliance with relevant federal laws. DD&A is responsible for coordination of the federal and state permitting effort, working with key regulatory agencies. Of note, DD&A coordinated consultation between the U.S. EPA and USFWS for Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act, and for the SWRCB to act as the federal lead for Section 106 of the National Historic Properties Act consultation. Additionally, DD&A also provided pre-construction biological survey and construction-phase monitoring services for the project.

Recently, the EIR and EIR Addenda collectively won the statewide award for Outstanding Environmental Analysis Document from the Association of Environmental Professionals (AEP). The AEP lauded the Pure Water Monterey/Groundwater Replenishment Project EIR as excelling "in its originality and approach in addressing and unprecedented breadth and depth of potential contaminants and compounds of emerging concern," and for having "laid the groundwork and sketched out the possibilities of what would ultimately become a model for the future of purified water projects."