EBMUD likely to drop Pardee Reservoir expansion

Written by Union Democrat staff April 04, 2012 01:39 pm

Opponents of a controversial proposed expansion to Pardee Reservoir in northern Calaveras County expect that portion of a long-range East Bay Municipal Utility District water supply plan to be eliminated when the district directors vote on it next month.

A contingent of environmentalists from Calaveras and Amador counties attended an EBMUD workshop March 27 in Oakland, where directors appeared to favor a staff recommendation to drop the Pardee portion from the plan up for an April 24 vote.

Groups such as Foothill Conservancy, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and Friends of the River filed suit in 2009 after the initial plan was released. EBMUD released a revised draft environmental impact report in December 2011 following a Sacramento County judge’s ruling that a Pardee expansion would have significant, unmitigable impacts on recreational and Miwok cultural uses of the Mokelumne River.

“The EBMUD directors responded very positively to the proposed changes,” Foothill Conservancy Vice President Pete Bell, who attended the workshop, stated in a news release. “We’re not done yet, but it appears that EBMUD has turned the corner on Pardee in favor of a more sustainable, dry-year water solution.”

While dozens of Calaveras and Amador County residents spoke out against the Pardee portion of the plan in a series of town hall-style meetings during the past two years and support for it remained mostly muted, the Calaveras County Water District has expressed interest in continued study of an expansion for purposes of creating additional water storage that could benefit local residents. Directors voted 4-1 last year to communicate that position to EBMUD, with Director Bob Dean, whose district borders Pardee Reservoir, notably dissenting. The San Andreas-based water district stopped short, however, of endorsing the expansion outright without additional study.

See the original article here.