Fighting for Marina's water!

Shortly after moving to Marina, I became involved with Citizens for Just Water. As chair (since 2020), together with other volunteers, I fight for Marina's water and Environmental Justice for our city. We are not against desal but oppose CalAm's proposed desal project in Marina because it threatens the aquifers below our city, which is MCWD's (Marina Coast Water District) sole source of drinking water. And this project is a prime example of Environmental Injustice because Marina would bear all the harms and risks while not receiving a drop of the desalinated water that will be sold by CalAm to its customers on the peninsula!

Citizens for Just Water - Justice for our Water
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What you can do to help...

On Thursday, November 17, 2022, the Coastal Commissioners will vote to approve or deny CalAm's desal project. The hearing will be held at the Board of Supervisors Chambers in Salinas. When the staff report has been published (probably Nov. 4), anyone can register to give one-minute public comments at the main venue in Salinas, or at Marina City Hall, or on Zoom.

Everyone already can email comments to the Coastal Commission, see instructions below. Please help our community by letting the commissioners know that we do not want this desal project in Marina!

Plese send your email TODAY!

Submit written comments by E-mail
Now is the time to act!

Step I: Choose a photo of you and your family and place it in the text of your email (not as attachment). This will help identify Marina residents from the hundreds of other emails the Coastal Commission will receive and will really show them who we are!

Step 2: Prepare a written comment of unlimited length (Just Water can help you). Begin your comments with: “Dear CA Coastal Commissioners, Executive Director John Ainsworth and staff”.
Write: My name is ______________; I am a resident of ________________. Add something brief about yourself, your family, your ethnic/racial background, your living/working/social/economic situation. Then add “Please deny the Cal-Am project that will harm Marina. Thank you”. Sign with your name and send. Just Water can assist you with other talking points or a draft script, if desired.

Step 3: Email your comments before Thursday, November 10 at 5 PM.
To: CalAmMonterey@coastal.ca.gov
From: Your name Subject: Deny CalAm Desalination Project
You will receive confirmation of receipt of your email directly from the CA Coastal Commission. Citizens for Just Water thanks you for helping Marina!

Marina's Desal Community Forum was held in the Marina Library

Public Forum - October 27, 2022
Hosted by Citizens for Just Water
Harms to Marina:
Getting the FACTS about CalAm’s Desalination Project
Watch the video! https://youtu.be/bsVCtc8PftE

Approximate start times of the speakers:

  • 1:20 – Citizens for Just Water Co-founder Kathy Biala - What is a slant well and what does the CalAm Slant Well Desal Project look like in Marina?

  • ​5:05 – MCWD General Manager: Rem Scherzinger - How will CalAm’s Project impact Marina’s water supplies?

  • 14:50 – M1W General Manager Paul Sciuto - Pure Water Monterey Project and its Expansion: Bright Outlook for the future

  • 24:40 – MPWMD General Manager David Stoldt - Does the Peninsula even need the CalAm project?

  • 42:4 – Mayor Bruce Delgado & Mayor Pro Tem Kathy Biala - Why is this CalAm project a classic case of Environmental Injustice?

  • 1:15:35 – Liesbeth Visscher, Citizens for Just Water chair - What you can do to help

  • 1:20:40 – Give public comments in person in Salinas or at Marina City Hall

  • 1:22:11 – Give public comments on Zoom

  • 1:23:51 – Everyone: Submit an email!

  • 1:25:25 – Recap what you can do to help!

Informing residents at the Farmers' Market

The Just Water booth is at the Farmers' Market every Sunday to inform as many people as we can. Please visit us between 10AM and 2PM (Reservation Road near Grocery Outlet).

Have your photo taken at the Farmers' Market!

After having been in waiting mode for almost two years, Citizen for Just Water supporters dusted off their protest signs!

KION Interview with Ana Torrea, the morning after CalAm's Community Forum at CSUMB

August 2022

Liesbeth with reporter Molly Gibbs, Monterey Herald, before the start of CalAm's Public Forum at CSUMB.

August 2022

In 2020, during Covid, Marina residents and business owners worked very hard to prepare for the special Coastal Commission that was scheduled for September 17. The meeting was cancelled because CalAm withdrew its application at the eleventh hour!

Due to Covid we couldn't host meetings in 2020. Instead, we had a weekly booth at the Marina Farmers' Market to inform as many residents as we could.

In 2020 we organized Beach Walks to show residents where CalAm's desal project is planned to be constructed. Residents have worked very hard to ensure closure of Cemex, the sandmining plant that has been in use for more than 100 years. The agreement includes returning this part of the beach to nature, and to provide easy public beach access. CalAm's proposed desal project would cause pumps, pipes and structures to be built here, instead of having a pristine beach area, habitat of the endangered beloved Western Snowy Plovers!

In November 2019, two buses drove to Half Moon Bay, for Marina residents to give one-minute public comments at the Coastal Commission meeting. Other residents were in Marina's City Hall where they were being filmed; the recordings were being live streamed to Half Moon Bay. The meeting lasted until long after dinner time.

Our two youngest speakers needed to stand on a chair to reach
the microphone to address the commissioners.

Staff recommended DENIAL of CalAm's desal project!

Many residents waited at Marina City Chambers to give their public comments on camera, which were live streamed to the Coastal Commission meeting. It was the first time that the Coastal Commission offered this option for remote speakers, to accommodate residents who could not take an entire day (plus evening) out of their daily life to travel to Half Moon Bay.