OAKLAND – The East Bay Municipal Utility District Board of Directors voted unanimously to not appeal a ruling against its 2040 water management plan, but it will focus on concerns raised by court.

East Bay MUD public information officer Charles C. Hardy announced the decision in a release May 24, saying the board voted “to comply with the court’s order to set aside” its Water Supply Management Program 2040 and related program approvals and conduct further analysis.

The board voted unanimously in closed session “not to appeal the decision in the litigation that set aside its” 2040 Plan but instead voted “to follow the court’s recommendations for supplementing the environmental analysis in the District’s 30-year water plan.”

In a ruling April 11, Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Timothy M. Frawley directed Eat Bay MUD “to study several areas in greater detail, including potential impacts on the Middle Bar segment of the Mokelumne River to the Miwok ancestral gathering places and the potential for involvement in neighboring Contra Costa Water District’s Los Vaqueros Reservoir expansion,” Hardy said.

East Bay MUD staff has been directed by its Board to supplement its existing environmental analysis for the 2040 Plan “to include the detailed analysis recommended by Judge Frawley,” Hardy said.

John A. Coleman, president of the East Bay utility’s Board of Directors, said: “We’re going to listen really closely to the judge’s criticism and correct the areas he thought we could have done better in. The process will be open and involve all interested parties.”

Hardy said the “District will begin the process in June, holding meetings in local and Upcountry areas near Mokelumne River in July with the goal of publishing a new draft document for review in October.” He said the “issuance of the draft would be followed by more public meetings locally and Upcountry, a lengthy comment period before the Board would consider certification of a final Program EIR and approval of the program in February 2012.”

East Bay MUD serves drinking water for 1.3 million customers in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, and wastewater treatment for 650,000.

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