Legal Tangle at Cemex

California American Water officials have acknowledged using patented slant well technology by Geoscience president Dennis Williams in the Monterey Peninsula desalination project after previously denying it

But Cal Am also announced it had reached a formal agreement that prohibits Williams and his company from asserting a patent infringement claim or seeking royalties.

In addition, Cal Am officials reported Geoscience had been working as a subconsultant for the company since the Coastal Water Project in 2004, well before the current desal project’s environmental review began. They also suggested the relationship began before the state Public Utilities Commission began working with Environmental Science Associates, which also used Geoscience.

Earlier this month, it was disclosed that Geoscience and Williams were working both for the CPUC, the regulatory agency, and for Cal Am, the project applicant, on the project’s test slant well design and the test well’s operational and impacts analysis in an apparent conflict of interest.

The latest information came in a filing with the CPUC earlier this week in response to a request from CPUC judge Gary Weatherford regarding Cal Am’s contractual relationship with Geoscience and Williams, who designed the desal project’s test slant well.

Geoscience’s Williams also filed a response to Weatherford’s request, detailing his patented technology and its relevance to the Peninsula desal project.

Weatherford’s request followed his July 9 ruling that extended public review of the desal project draft environmental impact report by nearly three months to Sept. 30 after CPUC officials discovered the potential conflict of interest.

Source: Monterey Herald

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• Technology
• Mining Development
• Water Wells