By Holly Boitano -
A routine agenda item turned into an episode worthy of the Discovery Channel Tuesday when Amador County Planning Commissioners learned of an early 20th Century mine tailing dam that had been seemingly lost since the 1970s, at Rancheria Creek. Commissioners were set to review an environmental document and possibly vote on a subdivision of 311 acres into 7 parcels, located on both sides of Highway 49 at the Rancheria Creek crossing, 800 feet south of Vaira Ranch Road in Drytown. About 10 area residents sat through 3 hours of agenda items to voice objections to the project’s inclusion of a 14.5-acre dedication to CALTRANS for a right-of-way, consisting of portions of an ancient road that had been abandoned by the County in the 1930s, but which residents still use and maintain as a secondary access to their properties.
But before the discussion reached the subject of the road, area resident Amy Turner dropped a bomb: The environmental document contains a highly inaccurate description of a “small agricultural pond” within Rancheria Creek, which is actually a 30-foot tall, 200-foot long dam that was built in 1910 to impound mine tailings from several of the area’s historic mines. Turner said that according to her research, the dam was last looked at in 1975, when apparently someone decided that it did not meet the qualifications to be placed in the Department of Water Resources Division of Dam Safety’s jurisdiction. Project applicants Steven MacDonald and Jeff Cookson also failed to disclose the existence of the dam in their project application. The written description of the project goes as far as to state, in two places, that “there are no existing structures on the properties.” This information was enough for Commissioners to require additional environmental review, including an engineering study on the stability of the dam and a study on the contents of the impounded soil. Residents were also reassured that the proposed right-of-way is only specific to this project, and that the County has no reason to independently seek easements through their properties.
