Preface: The Hidden Cost of "Safe" Water in Monterey County

For over two decades, rural residents of unincorporated Monterey County have been told their well water must meet "potable" standards to build, expand, or simply live on their own land. This demand has blocked permits, forced expensive treatments, and caused untold hardship—including one man's 20-year struggle with seizures affected by the stress of repeated denials.

The truth is simpler and more disturbing: For wells with 2 to 4 or 5 to14 connections (the vast majority in rural Monterey ;  > 80%), California law imposes no enforceable drinking-water standards. Title 22 requires only basic coliform reporting—no chemical maximums, no full treatment mandates. Monterey County code mirrors this, yet Environmental Health Bureau staff have used vague statements and application of requirements for 15-200 connection water systems to deny permits for smaller systems and push corporate filtration systems while hiding revenue surpluses during “cost recovery” presentations for the approval of fee increases. 

This demand documents a pattern: From 2003 permit hoaxes to 2019 "voluntary" POU/POE coercion and unanswered cost challenges to 2025 evasions on testing instructions and takeovers -- and from 2013 to present -- Cheryl Sandoval, Marni Flagg, and Ric Encarnacion—have withheld facts, delayed responses, and concealed the lack of authority behind their actions.

What began as constituent questions has revealed systemic abuse and overreach: Revenue retained from low-effort systems in an opaque manner, testing protocols that create false urgency, cleansing protocols that create false safety given no consideration for parasites, and denials that devastate lives—all while claiming to protect public health.

The admissions below force transparency. They are not accusations—they are questions the public deserves answered under oath.

Bryan Canary

December 12, 2025