Press Releases

Seaside, Calif. - The city of Seaside has answered a complaint filed against it by the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District (District) as part of the Seaside Groundwater Basin Adjudication - a lawsuit concerning local groundwater supplies. In addition, Seaside also filed a cross-complaint against the District to ensure that any future actions by the District are done so in a coordinated and consistent manner with the court-administered groundwater management plan, which all parties request the court to establish.

The basin adjudication began in August 2003 when California American Water (Cal Am) filed suit against Seaside and the other cities overlying the basin, as well as several landowners. In the suit, Cal Am requested that the court determine who has rights to extract groundwater and in what quantities. The suit also requested that the court create a management plan for the basin that would provide efficient, responsible and sustainable basin management.

In November, the District intervened in the lawsuit and filed a complaint against Seaside and the other defendants alleging that it has broad powers to manage the basin. The District's complaint acknowledged that a court-administered management plan for the basin should be implemented. The cross-compliant filed today by Seaside agrees that a basin management plan is necessary, but requests that any plan established by the court integrate the rights and roles of all basin stakeholders, including the cities, Cal Am and the District.

The Seaside Groundwater Basin is the underground water supply underlying the cities of Seaside, Sand City, Del Rey Oaks, a portion of the city of Monterey and unincorporated county lands in the Laguna Seca area. Groundwater produced from the Seaside Basin represents a substantial part of the water supply for the Monterey Peninsula.