Amador County – Foothill Conservancy President Katherine Evatt announced in late May that the East Bay Municipal Utility District board of directors decided not appeal a court decision against East Bay Municipal’s 2040 water plan. Instead, it will get under way on redoing parts of the plan.

Evatt said the Conservancy is “glad to hear they’ll be holding more hearings in Amador and Calaveras this time around.” She said in 2009, “we had to beg them to hold foothill meetings, and when they did, the response was overwhelming in opposition to the proposed expansion of Pardee Reservoir.”

Plaintiffs in the suit included Foothill Conservancy, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and Friends of the River. Evatt said they had “never seen such a diverse group” of “people, organizations, and governments so unified on a conservation issue.”

She said “we’re not just looking for (East Bay Municipal) to do a better (Environmental Impact Report). But this time, they’ll have to do a better analysis of alternatives to the Pardee expansion and not gloss over the serious damage a larger reservoir would cause to the Mokelumne River’s recreational, public safety and cultural resources.” She said “now they know that people who love the Mokelumne are serious about protecting our river and we will fight for it.”

The suit said East Bay MUD’s proposed expansion of Pardee would submerge nearly two miles of the Mokelumne River, including a section known as the Middle Bar Run. Evatt said the “historic Middle Bar Bridge that crosses the affected section of river is also a critical link for emergency response and evacuation.”

She hoped a “fresh look” at impacts and alternatives will lead East Bay MUD to “drop the Pardee expansion in favor of their other water options and work with us to protect the Mokelumne with National Wild and Scenic River designation instead.”

Amador County Supervisor Chairman John Plasse said the ruling means East Bay MUD must return for more study, at more cost to the utility. He said a letter to Supervisors from the Foothill Conservancy alluded to the 2040 Plan ruling, as the Conservancy sought changes to the Amador County General Plan Update.

The Foothill Conservancy submitted 54 pages commenting on the preliminary General Plan and related documents. Plasse said it was part of the cause to increase a consultant contract to address such detailed comments. The consultant’s contract with Amador County on the General Plan update increased $180,000.

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