Amador County – The Jackson City Council on Monday voted unanimously to urge East Bay Municipal Utility District to drop its plan to expand the Pardee Reservoir and to adopt other alternatives for getting water.
The Council voted 4-0 (with Marilyn Lewis absent) to reaffirm their opposition to the plan. Vice Mayor Keith Sweet requested the resolution, saying the “city has been a leader since 2009 in protecting the Mokelumne River,” and he wanted to have the City Council present this resolution to East Bay MUD Wednesday night “in this very room.”
East Bay Municipal returns to its Water Management Program 2040 tonight, hosting a public scoping meeting 6:30 p.m. today in the Jackson Civic Center to discuss the part of the plan that would enlarge the Pardee Dam, causing the potential flooding of the Mokelumne River and loss of the 1912 Middle Bar Bridge.
Sweet said the city should lead the way again, as it did in 2009 with a resolution of opposition, which was followed by similar resolutions of opposition by Ione, Sutter Creek, and Plymouth city councils. City Manager Mike Daly said other agencies followed with opposition of the Pardee expansion, including Amador County, ACRA, the Historical Society, Congressman Dan Lungren, Assemblywoman Alyson Huber, and members of the local Miwok community.
Mayor Connie Gonsalves said Sweet could present the resolution to East Bay MUD on behalf of the city, and Sweet agreed.
The resolution, in part, said the “city of Jackson urges the East Bay Municipal Utility District to drop the proposed Pardee expansion from its 2040 water plan; adopt higher conservation, rationing and recycling levels; and partner in the expansion of Los Vaqueros Reservoir instead of expanding Pardee Reservoir.”
East Bay Municipal is returning to environmental impact evaluation after an April court ruling in Sacramento Superior Court, in favor of Foothill Conservancy and other groups to get more impacts analyzed.
Sweet and Daly in a report said East Bay MUD “has taken no action to remove that expansion” of Pardee from its plans “and on June 28 the EBMUD board approved an updated Urban Water Management Plan that includes potential expansions of its reservoirs on the Mokelumne River.”
Sweet and Daly reiterated Foothill Conservancy’s concerns, including that the plan would inundate the Middle Bar Reach, from Highway 49 to Middle Bar Bridge, which would be inundated or removed, “cutting off a critical fire and emergency services connection between Amador and Calaveras counties.”
It would also flood and destroy a kayak and raft “take-out area,” many “historical and Native American cultural sites” in that reach, and any “potential for commercial whitewater rafting” there. It would also flood the new $1 million BLM “Big Bar River Access Facility currently under construction at the Highway 49 bridge.”
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
