Save Our Peninsula Committee v. Monterey County Bd. of Supervisors

In Save Our Peninsula Committee v. Monterey County Bd. of Supervisors (2001) 87 Cal.App.4th 99, it was expressly undisputed that any increase in water pumping from the alluvial aquifer above preproject levels would have an adverse and significant impact on the environment; further, the draft EIR set forth a baseline water usage for irrigation of the project property that was based on a representation by the project proponents despite the fact that there was no evidence showing the property had actually been irrigated on an historical basis. (Id. at pp. 118, 120-122.) Concluding that CEQA required an EIR to set forth the existing environment as the baseline and include assessment of the impacts of a project "measured against the 'real conditions on the ground'" rather than hypothetical circumstances (Save Our Peninsula, supra, 87 Cal.App.4th at p. 121, quoting City of Carmel-by-the-Sea v. Board of Supervisors (1986) 183 Cal.App.3d 229, 246), the appellate court determined that the EIR's water supply discussion "suffered from a . . . lack of analysis" (id. at p. 131) and ordered the lead agency to prepare a revised EIR that discussed, among other things, actual water use based on documentation or good faith estimates of historical use, pumping histories, and an analysis of the project prononents' riparian rights (id. at p. 143).