California American Water Co. is asking state regulators to deny an application to lift a moratorium on new hookups from Carmel River water that has left the Monterey Peninsula for two decades without the ability to construct badly needed housing. Cal Am is saying other water supplies, such as Pure Water Monterey and its expansion, are not stable enough to lift a cease-and-desist order regulators placed on pumping a specified amount of water out of the Carmel River aquifer. … The desist order was slapped on the Peninsula because Cal Am was pumping significantly more water than could sustain a steelhead fishery, a protected species. The order was put in place following lawsuits filed by the Sierra Club and others.