Monterey Bay desalination project is approved despite environmental injustice concerns, EPA final report concludes
(Photo courtesy of NOAA).
The Bay of Monterey, the largest estuary in the western hemisphere, boasts the biggest fish trap in the world, but it still faces one of the worst environmental injustices in the country.
The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, a network of protected sanctuaries around the bay, is home to thousands of seagrass beds. In recent years, there has been substantial degradation of these areas for recreational use.
“This is what’s happening in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary: Seagrass beds that are being converted to cropland are being turned into urban parking lots,” says Steve Reeder, executive director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
The area provides a habitat for a variety of marine species, many of whom are vulnerable to pollution and other forms of contamination.
In 2015, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary was designated a “special use area” under the Magnuson-Stevens Act. This is an official designation, though it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is a “special use.” It simply puts the sanctuary off limits to humans.
However, this designation also allows for an exemption to the federal law prohibiting the export of water from the sanctuary.
The exemption was approved by the Environmental Protection Agency in January. Now, after more than three years of environmental review, the EPA has recommended that the Monterey Bay desalination project, the largest in U.S. history, be approved. It is the final part of the larger Monterey Bay desalination project.
The EPA is recommending the approval of the Monterey Bay desalination project because it will support more than 1.3 million U.S. standard-sized homes annually, according to the final report, and will support the restoration of wetlands, seagrass beds and other important