Amador County – About 50 people attended a scoping meeting Wednesday at Jackson Civic Center hosted by East Bay Municipal Utility District to take comment on its plan to build a bigger dam at Pardee Lake, which could inundate – or flood the banks of – the Mokelumne River, up to 1,000 feet upstream of the Highway 49 bridge.
East Bay MUD Manager of Water Supply Improvements Mike Tognolini said: “We’re at the beginning of the process” and “learning more about the specific issues.” He said they “don’t have a lot of answers now,” and they would share the information they gather in the scoping with their Board of Directors “so they can be informed as well.”
His boss, Richard Sykes, East Bay Director of Water & Natural Resources, said they would allow people to speak for the purpose of determining the scope of the new Programmatic Environmental Impact Report for the plan to increase the size of the Pardee Reservoir, part of the Utility’s Water Supply Management Program 2040. The scoping was part of court-ordered extra study, under the California Environmental Quality Act.
Sykes said East Bay’s board “wanted a robust plan” and “enlarging Pardee” was one of the approaches to securing water for the District in the future. He said the 2040 Plan was certified by the Board in October 2009, and Foothill Conservancy and other groups filed suit in November 2009. That was adjudicated in April, the judge sending East Bay MUD back to look at specific impacts of making a bigger Pardee footprint.
Sykes said those included health and safety issues from removing the Middle Bar Bridge by putting it under water; impacts of “the loss of native Miwok ancestral gathering places,” the “willow gathering areas” in the Middle Bar Reach on the Mokelumne River; and loss or recreation on the river.
About two dozen people spoke of impacts on Indian heritage, fishing, recreation, and the potential loss of the Middle Bar bridge impacting fire safety in the area.
On Thursday, Sykes emphasized that “there is no project” now, and enlarging Pardee, if it happens, may be 10-20 years down the road. He said East Bay MUD wants to be transparent, and talk about impacts, and their mitigations. He said that means talking about tough issues.
Comments will be taken in writing and at next week’s final scoping session in Oakland. Comments should be sent to Thomas B. Francis.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
