www.montereycountynow.com JULY 16-22, 2026 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 15 A fact that should be shocking in the 21st century in the United States of America: It is not safe to drink the tap water in the South Monterey County community of San Lucas, and it hasn’t been since at least 2011. That’s when public health officials first issued a “Do Not Drink” order due to an unsafe level of nitrates in the water. “We are requiring the use of bottled water or water from an approved source for drinking or cooking,” a July 7, 2011 notice from the Health Department read. “Research is being done to find another water source.” Fifteen years later, it looks like that research—and the funding needed to accomplish it—is finally here. On Tuesday, July 7, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to accept a $4 million construction grant from the State Water Resources Control Board, reflecting funding that was earmarked by the State Legislature to serve this rural community of roughly 325 people served (theoretically) by 100 water connections. Along with federal funding, it reaches the nearly $8 million—roughly a quarter of what’s needed to finally build a solution. (This solution—installation of two wells, a new water treatment system, and necessary infrastructure improvements including pipeline improvements— should last. Despite a new well drilled in 2014, that solution was short-lived and a second “Do Not Drink” order issued in 2016 has remained in place ever since due to the high volume of nitrates, manganese and iron in the water.) All this time, residents have relied on deliveries of bottled water for drinking. Imagine, once the work is finally done, the ability to simply fill up a glass of water or a pot to boil pasta in the sink—something so basic that most of us forget to appreciate it. “In the last few years, we’ve had some incredible milestones,” County Supervisor Chris Lopez says. “This is not the end, but it signifies we are on the right path, and the state and federal government are investing in the solution together.” For years, the Board of Supervisors has ranked it in their top priorities when it comes to advocacy at the state and federal level. Finally, it seems the long game is paying off. A much faster timeline to success also received unanimous support on July 7, when the board voted 5-0 to approve an ordinance requiring that pet dogs (older than 6 months) and cats (5 months) are spayed or neutered, modeled on a similar ordinance adopted in 2024 in the City of Seaside. Supervisor Luis Alejo said two high school students in his young supervisors program first raised the issue last August. Here it is less than a year later, and those young people were there to testify before the board urging final adoption of an ordinance they helped brainstorm. “It’s the first time in recent county history that high school students have successfully proposed a county policy change,” Alejo said. “What impressed me is they didn’t just identify a problem, they became part of the solution.” That solution is meant to help minimize the number of the 1,000-plus animals that are euthanized each year at Hitchcock Road Animal Services in Salinas. The young leaders who brought this forward include Eli David, a co-founder of the Paws Club at Carmel High School, who spoke on July 7. “While approaching our animal overpopulation problem can be complicated, the issue itself is simple: Our status quo is broken, our status quo is causing unnecessary suffering of animals countywide,” he said. “We came together and said enough is enough, and we made change for the better by adopting this ordinance. You have shown us young leaders of tomorrow that we can make change today.” Of course, this ordinance alone won’t solve an animal overpopulation problem—access to low-cost spay and neuter clinics is a necessity, and enforcement will be another obstacle. But in a world where ideas hit obstacles (cost is just one of many) or imperfect solutions fall apart due simply to their imperfection—or because a project as essential as getting a community safe drinking water takes upwards of 15 years—it’s too easy to become cynical. Some days, local government gets to say yes to solutions. Sara Rubin is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@montereycountynow.com. Staff writers Celia Jiménez and Katie Rodriguez contributed to this report. Slow Flow Two local government success stories, one slow and one fast. By Sara Rubin COOKIE-GATE…Squid salivates over savory, shrimp-flavored snacks but on July 7, it was a box of sweet treats that got Squid’s juices flowing. The treats arrived during a Carmel City Council meeting, putting councilmembers in jeopardy of a delicious conflict of interest. Former councilmember Victoria Beach stepped up to the podium to speak in favor of an amendment to the city’s housing plan, one that she and other residents from the group Affordable Housing Alternatives helped city staff craft in a bid to prevent use of the city’s parking lots for low-income housing. The amendment instead spreads most of the units throughout downtown. Before Beach spoke, she handed a box of baked goods to Acting City Administrator Brandon Swanson, encouraging him to pass them to councilmembers. Swanson seemed unsure what to do. “Is that OK, Brian?” he asked City Attorney Brian Pierik. No answer can be heard or seen from Pierik on the video of the meeting. The box remained with Swanson. Beach called the gift “congratulatory sweets,” for the council’s work. The box sat with Swanson for another 30 minutes until the 3-2 vote to approve the amendment. It was at that point Pierik spoke: “Mayor, you may want to thank Victoria Beach for the cookies and then return them.” Crisis averted, the sweets were handed out to the audience. LEAN BEEF…Squid tends to keep to Squidself, but Squid admits there’s some beef with pufferfish—with only so much space to ooze over, they puff up and take more than their share. Squid found there’s beef on land too, cattle grazing land, to be specific. In February, the Monterey County Regional Park District put out a request for proposals for a grazing lease at Palo Corona Regional Park. The RFP attracted five applicants in a neck-and-neck bid. MPRPD selected Renz Livestock as the winner by a hair, in a process other applicants argued lacked transparency and had an ambiguous scoring process. In response to the outcry, the park district has said they are going to start the RFP process all over again. While officials maintain confidence in the scoring process and their use of MidPen consultants, they agree some of the process had some ambiguities that should be corrected. They also acknowledge that the process will be…the same as before. Squid wonders how they’ll grade everyone’s test given they’ve already seen the answers—the bids and scores of all applicants have all been released thanks to a California Public Records Act request. This is the park district’s first official grazing lease process, and they say they want to get it right. But Squid’s not sure an open-book test is the best way to do that. THE LOCAL SPIN SQUID FRY THE MISSION OF MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY IS TO INSPIRE INDEPENDENT THINKING AND CONSCIOUS ACTION, ETC. “They didn’t just identify a problem, they became part of the solution.” SEND SQUID A TIP: squid@montereycountynow.com
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjAzNjQ1NQ==