Amador County – East Bay Municipal Utility District will host local public hearings next week to take comments on its revised draft Program Environmental Impact Report (PEIR) for its Water Supply Management Program 2040.
On the Dec. 5 release, East Bay Municipal’s draft PEIR recommended that “the District defer the project to enlarge Pardee Reservoir and not include it in its 30-year water plan.” The East Bay Municipal’s board of directors must decide in March whether or not to remove the Pardee expansion project from the 2040 Plan.
The original 2040 Plan included the expansion of Pardee’s dam which would flood the entire Middle Bar reach of the Mokelumne River and the lower end of the Electra Run upstream of Highway 49. The larger reservoir would have inundated recreational, cultural and historic resources including the new Big Bar River Access point constructed last summer and the historic Middle Bar Bridge.
Foothill Conservancy Executive Director Chris Wright urged local residents to attend the EIR hearings set for Tuesday in Jackson, and Wednesday in San Andreas. Wright said: “We need to encourage EBMUD to follow the staff recommendation to drop the Pardee expansion.”
Wright said the Conservancy hopes local residents and East Bay Municipal “ratepayers will speak up at the hearings and be as gracious in thanking” East Bay Municipal “for changing course as they have been outspoken in opposing the Pardee expansion.”
Wright said Amador and Calaveras County residents opposed the expansion of Pardee in past public hearings. East Bay Municipal included the expansion in its 2040 Program, approved by its board in October 2009. Foothill Conservancy, Friends of the River, and the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance followed that approval by filing a lawsuit, claiming the water utility had violated the California Environmental Quality Act. An April 2011 Sacramento Superior Court ruling voided the water program’s approval and sent East Bay Municipal back to re-do certain aspects of the related EIR, including a scoping hearing in Jackson to look at impacts of the Pardee expansion project.
The revised EIR is the subject of the public hearings. One will be held 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 11 at the Jackson Civic Center (33 Broadway) and 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 12 at the San Andreas Town Hall (24 Church Hill Road). East Bay Municipal will also hold a public hearing 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 17 at its Oakland Headquarters.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
