Amador County – The Foothill Conservancy argued in Sacramento Superior Court Friday in its suit seeking to stop expansion of Pardee Lake, and now must wait up to 90 days for a ruling.

Chris Wright, executive director of the Foothill Conservancy said the judge “seemed to favor most of our key points,” the primary one being that East Bay Municipal Utility District needs to do an Environmental Impact Report on its “2040 Water Supply Management Plan.”

When a lot of Foothill Conservancy’s points were made, the judge “seemed to nod and concur,” Wright said, although he admitted that it was “sort of conjecture on my part. I could be reading his body language entirely wrong.”

Attorneys for both sides spoke and answered the judge’s questions over a couple of hours. Foothill Conservancy argued that if East Bay MUD was building a dam on the Mokelumne River, it should make an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) on that project. He said East Bay MUD argued that it did not need to do an EIR because the plan was “some kind of theoretical project” that they may never build.

Wright said East Bay MUD a few years ago “did a really poor EIR” on a plan to expand Pardee Lake by building up its dam. The EIR “found significant impacts, and suggested some mitigation” in the region, but “they left it out of this, and we have no idea why.” He thought the judge would include the old EIR in considering other documents in the suit.

If the ruling requires the EIR, “they would have to go back and redo the analysis,” and take it back to the East Bay MUD board of directors for a vote, Wright said, then Amador and Calaveras County residents would get to comment.

Wright said Contra Costa Water District is expanding capacity at Los Vaqueros Dam and asked East Bay MUD to be a partner in the project, but East Bay MUD declined. The “off-stream reservoir” at Los Vaqueros would have “a lot fewer impacts” and is “on the other side of the Delta,” Wright said, and their decision to decline “should definitely be reevaluated.”

The judge has up to 90 days from the Feb. 4 hearing to make a ruling. Wright said Foothill Conservancy feels pretty confident about its case, and while awaiting the ruling they will continue to pursue “Wild & Scenic” legislation for the Mokelumne River. He said they have support of three Calaveras County Supervisors on that issue, but none of the Amador County Supervisors support it. He said 1,800 residents and 100 businesses in Amador County do support the designation and 5,000 people overall have signed up in support.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.