Kevin Dayton's Official Candidate Statement in Monterey County Voter Guide

50 Ways to Get Your Water

We need diversity in water supply to make sure water is plentiful - even after a drought, earthquake, and/or tsunami.

Not everyone in local leadership looks for 50 ways to get our water. Some don't even support the traditional "three-legged stool"for water supply: (1) recycled water, (2) aquifer storage and recovery, and (3) desalination.

Instead, we often hear our community's water future defined as Good or Bad polar opposites. 

Desalination (declared "Bad") versus Recycled Wastewater (declared "Good").

Or Private Water (declared "Bad") versus Government Water (declared  "Good").

We Must Acknowledge Our Water Will Never Be Cheap

Ignore the people saying our water will soon be cheap and plentiful because the government will extract our water from sewage and control it from toilet to tap.

Our Reality: we live in a Mediterranean climate with some very wet months every few years and a lot of dry years. This cycle was happening in California long before climate change.

Also, mountains and the ocean isolate our geographic area from the rest of California. We're cut off from water supply that comes from melted snow accumulated in high mountains ranges. We don't get water from reservoirs in the Sierra Nevada foothills, or from the Delta, or from the Colorado River.

Therefore, we need a lot of local water infrastructure. Construction and maintenance of water infrastructure is expensive! Our water will cost a lot no matter who controls it.

What We Need Is More Water Storage

There are many opportunities to collect excess river water and stormwater. There's little talk and even less action on it.

Why does water from the Carmel River and Salinas River flow to the ocean when these rivers flood? Why does stormwater flow from culverts onto the beach every winter? The fish don't need that extra water in the ocean. We do.

What's the Purpose of the Water District? 

Some people insinuate that the ideal reason to serve on the water board is to restrict water supply and therefore prevent population growth and restrain business growth.

Actually, state law states that the water district (governed by its elected board) is supposed to ensure "sufficient water may be available for any present or future beneficial use."

As your water board member, I will follow the law.

Kevin Dayton, Candidate for Board of Directors, Monterey Peninsula Water Management District, Division 3 (City of Monterey)