Company: AWK
Filing Date: 2025-02-19
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001410636-25-000022
Chunk: 110

Company: American Water Works Company, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-19
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 3
Chunk 110
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4. On November 22, 2024, the administrative hearing officer sent a second letter to the court advising that the draft report would be considered for approval at a public meeting of the SWRCB to be held in the first quarter of 2025. On December 31, 2024, an initial draft report was circulated by the SWRCB to the parties for review and comment.

Regional Water Quality Control Board Approval of NPDES Permit Amendment

A requirement of the desalination plant that is a key component of the Water Supply Project is the discharge of brine through Monterey One Water’s outfall. As a condition to Cal Am’s coastal development permit, an amendment of a NPDES permit must be obtained by Monterey One Water as the outfall owner from the Regional Water Quality Control Board (the “RWQCB”). The RWQCB must also determine that the proposed brine discharge complies with the desalination facility requirements under the California Ocean Plan. Working in cooperation with Monterey One Water staff and consultants, Cal Am prepared an application for submission to the RWQCB, which application and submission were approved by Monterey One Water's Board on September 30, 2024.

Challenges Related to Compliance with California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act

Under California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (“SGMA”) enacted in 2015, groundwater basins designated by the state as critically overdrafted must be managed by a GSA by 2020 in accordance with an approved groundwater sustainability plan (“GSP”) designed to achieve sustainability by 2040. Under the SGMA, GSAs have broad powers to achieve sustainability including, but not limited to, regulating groundwater extraction by imposing fees on groundwater extractions and controlling groundwater extractions by regulating, limiting or suspending extractions from wells. The 400-acre CEMEX site overlies a small portion of the 180/400 Subbasin of the Salinas Valley Groundwater Basin; the 84,000-acre 180/400 Subbasin has been designated by the state as critically overdrafted, mainly due to seawater intrusion into the subbasin.

In late 2016, the Salinas Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency (the “SVBGSA”) was formed as a joint powers authority to become the GSA for the Salinas Valley Groundwater Basin and prepare a GSP. In April 2018, the City filed a notice to become the GSA for the CEMEX site, creating an overlap with the SVBGSA’s filing