Amador County – Amador Water Agency Board of Directors on Wednesday approved a letter to comment on the East Bay Municipal Utility District’s scoping of its 2040 Water Supply Management Program, saying it did not want any project to affect the water level in the river at the Middle Bar Reach, and briefly discussed the reason for the letter.

Operations Manager Chris McKeage asked about the “pros and cons relative to the AWA” in making comments.

The Board declined to ask for the project to be dropped, as requested by the Foothill Conservancy. Instead, it made comments about keeping the water level the same, at the Middle Bar Reach, about a mile below the Highway 49 bridge. ¶ McKeage said: “Why are we telling them what to do? We are kind of reaching out and touching them on their affairs.”

Board President Don Cooper said the agency must “guard these resources and large water needs.” AWA General Manager Gene Mancebo said “as anybody makes water supply projects on the Mokelumne River, or proposes them, it could impact our ability to have water projects in the future.”

Foothill Conservancy’s Katherine Evitt said it could affect a 1958 water rights agreement between AWA and East Bay MUD, according to the Conservancy’s attorney, though AWA’s attorney interprets the agreement differently.

Mancebo said an East Bay Municipal project could have potential impact to water rights, or to an “Integrated Regional Conjunctive Use Project,” under a regional Integrated Regional Water Management Plan, or “natural resources in Amador County,” all noted in an extensive 2009 AWA letter opposing the plan to raise Pardee Dam.

Director Gary Thomas said he thought a draft letter by Cooper seemed “flimsy,” until he read the letter former AWA General Manager Jim Abercrombie sent to East Bay Municipal on March 27, 2009.

The letter said AWA is “opposed to the enlargement of the Pardee Reservoir as currently proposed, especially the water back-up, past the Highway 49 bridge.” It said the project and scale, and water back-up appeared to be “more significant that previously proposed,” and “there are significant environmental, aesthetics, biological and recreational impacts that the public raised that need to be addressed.”

The letter noted, however, that the “Agency supports continuing discussion on the concept of the (Integrated Regional Conjunctive Use Plan) project,” adopted in 2006 by AWA, Amador County, the Calaveras County Water District, and the cities of Jackson and Ione.

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