Water politics never change on the Monterey Peninsula. The same people—environmentalists versus tourism and development interests—debate the same problem: How to stop over-pumping the Carmel River and find a long-term source of water. Little gets accomplished. And the fights usually turn nasty.

This year’s races for two seats on the Monterey Peninsula Water management District board are no different.

Enviros and left-leaning political types have thrown their support behind Regina Doyle and Lance Monosoff, for the Pacific Grove and Carmel races, respectively. On the other side, the Hospitality Association and local chambers of commerce have endorsed Lee Yarborough (in PG) and Bob Brower (in Carmel).

The candidates are running to replace outgoing board members Larry Foy and Michelle Knight, both of whom work in the hospitality industry. Victories for Doyle and Monosoff could tilt the board’s makeup to a decidedly slow-growth (opponents say no-growth) majority.

The Carmel race is more contentious. Monosoff says he favors a small desalination plant to provide water for current residents and owners of lots of record. Brower says this is code for “do nothing,” and says he’ would bring desalinated water to the Peninsula. Monosoff says Brower’s beholden to development interests; Brower says Monosoff will toe the Sierra Club’s line.

The candidate at the center of the political storm is Brower, who owns Chateau Julien Wine Estate in Carmel Valley. Chateau Julien—and, as its proprietor, Brower—has been controversial almost since it opened in 1982.

In 1985, the Board of Supervisors voted to limit the number of visitors the winery could have for tastings and tours. It also voted to prohibit special events, like weddings and banquets. Brower argued  the county’s restrictions would financially cripple the winery. Later that year, a judge ruled that Chateau Julien’s permit would allow those types of uses.

In 1990, some neighbors brought another dispute before county supervisors. They said five wine-processing tanks were ugly and noisy; the board ruled  the tanks could stay but told Brower to repaint them.

Six years later, Brower applied  to build a wine storage facility, called a chai. In 1997, he began holding events at the new facility.  Neighbors grumbled about traffic and noise, and argued that the chai, which houses a kitchen and two bathrooms, had been approved for wine storage, not parties. Brower contended that wine tastings and other events were allowed in the chai because the uses are part of the winery business. After  complaints from Carmel Valley property owners, the county’s Planning and Building Inspection Department determined the events were illegal. Brower appealed to the county Planning Commission, which agreed with him.

In 1999, neighbors appealed the commission’s decision to the Board of Supervisors. At the hearing, supervisors left the chai’s fate in limbo. “If you’re going to create an industry, you have to have a sale arm for the industry,” Supervisor Lou Calcagno said before the board voted to create a subcommittee (Calcagno and Supervisor Dave Potter) to meet with county planners and Chateau Julien owners to develop guidelines for future events. Calcagno and Potter never met with Brower. County code enforcecent officials say the case is  “pending.”

“I thought staff was taking care of if, until about a week ago, when I heard otherwise from some of the Carmel Valley residents,” Potter says. “My office, as of late, hasn’t heard of any complaints about the

facility.”

But water board elections have a way of making old dirt rise to the surface.

The Carmel Valley Association, the area’s oldest residents’ group with 800 members, endorsed Monosoff, praising his “balanced experience as a businessman, an appointed guardian of the Carmel River by two different supervisors, and his volunteer work for the Sierra Club,” and chastising Brower’s “late-night parties for hundreds of people, the use of a wine storage building and a staff kitchen for non-permitted commercial party purposes, non-permitted building activity.”

In its news release, the CVA also rehashes a situation  from 2000 in which neighbors complained that, following the Planning Commission’s decision to allow the chai for weddings and the like, the winery’s wastewater capacities had been exceeded, and wastewater had been spilling into the Carmel River, which flows beneath the property. The California Regional Water Quality Control board found that Chateau Julien had been underreporting its capacity and underestimating the amount of wastewater it processed. The  agency required the winery to meet a more stringent reporting process; no violations have occurred since.

But it’s hardly water under the bridge to Brower’s opponents.

“He was doing all of these events on a routine basis without a use permit,” says former water board member Pat Bernardi. “He was basically contaminating the aquifer. And now he’s coming out there as an environmentalist? Give me a break.”

Brower’s opponent Monosoff, a Sierra Club volunteer who owns Central Coast Properties, says if voters choose Brower, “We’d be putting someone in power who has a history of disregard for following the law and now he’ll be in the power of enforcing the law. Will enforcement be different depending upon who the applicant is?”

Says Brower: “I’ve never disobeyed the law.”

Brower says none of these things are relevant. About the water quality control violations, he says, “In retrospect, our government wanted more data on what was going on in the valley itself, and we happened to be a convenient target. The water is cleaner since the winery has been here.”

About the county code violations: “I believe county counsel took care of it,” Brower says. “I’m not aware of anything that’s different. I know my opposition is making it into an issue. “

Brower notes the “other things I do for the community.”  He chairs the Monterey County Workforce Investment Board,  he’s a former chairman of the Hospice Foundation and is a Monterey County Education Foundation trustee.

Then he appears to soften towards his opponents.

“Some of these folks get so uptight because they love the community. They express it differently than I do, but they’re passionate about the area. In reality, we all want the same thing. The people will decide on Nov. 6.”