AG Land Trust v. Marina Coast Water Dist. CA6

I. INTRODUCTION

This CEQA1 action arises from the approval of the Regional Desalination Project by appellant Marina Coast Water District (Marina Coast). The Regional Desalination Project was to be owned and operated by Marina Coast, the Monterey County Water Resources Agency (Water Resources Agency), and the California American Water Company (Cal-Am), a corporation regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC). Cal-Am‟s participation was to include the construction of a distribution system to deliver the desalinated water to customers on the Monterey Peninsula.

1 California Environmental Quality Act, Public Resources Code section 21000 et seq. All further statutory references are to the Public Resources Code unless otherwise indicated. Respondent Ag Land Trust, a nonprofit group interested in preserving Monterey County farmland, challenged Marina Coast‟s approval of the Regional Desalination Project by filing a petition for a writ of mandate in the superior court. In support of its petition, Ag Land Trust argued that Marina Coast, not the PUC, should be the lead agency for CEQA purposes and that the environmental impact report (EIR) prepared by the PUC was…