In 1995, Bill Clinton was president, Pixar produced Toy Story (the first fully computer-animated feature film), and a NATO offensive ended war in Bosnia. It was also the year the California State Water Resources Control Board determined that California American Water was pumping roughly three times more water from the Carmel River than it is legally entitled to. The board issued Order 95-10, requiring Cal Am to cut back its use of river water to the legal limit. Here we are, 27 years later, and the cease-and-desist order is still in effect. … And that brings us to the issue du jour, a controversial desalination plant proposed by Cal Am, set to go before the California Coastal Commission for a vote on Thursday, Nov. 17. There are a lot of reasons to object to this project …
-Written by Sara Rubin, editor of the Monterey County Weekly.