Posted by: thepinetree on 03/17/2009 08:33 AM
Updated by: thepinetree on 03/17/2009 11:35 AM
Expires: 01/01/2014 12:00 AM
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Over 100 Concerned Citizens Pack EBMUD Meeting ~By Sean Kriletich
Sutter Hill, CA...The public hearing for EBMUD’s 2040 Plan draft EIR was scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. yet by ten after six there wasn’t a seat left in the Amador Water Agency Board Chambers. By 6:30 although the sky between Sutter Hill and the East Bay was a beautiful pink no one was paying attention to the sunset. Aside from the 60 plus people seated and standing inside the Amador Water Agency chambers (capacity 49), at least 40 local residents were standing either in the foyer of the chambers, at the back door or around the windows paying strict attention to the proceedings inside...
 
The hearing began with a short introduction to the proposed plans by a representative of EDAW, an international consulting firm. One of the possible proposals would be the construction of a new dam across the Mokelumne just below the existing Pardee dam in conjunction with the expansion of Lower Bear Reservoir. The Pardee portion of this project would, if constructed flood over 12,000 more acres of land in Amador and Calaveras counties including the Middle Bar and Highway 49 bridges.
Public comment began with the Foothill Conservancy thanking EBMUD for having this public hearing and then quickly following up with opposition to the proposed plan. Ideas about how to achieve the water delivery capacity EBMUD claims it will need without a larger Pardee but instead through partnership, land stewardship and conservation were presented by Calaveras County Supervisor Steve Wilensky. Opposition to the plan by Amador, Calaveras and out of the area residents continued into the night and ranged from science based ideas for other solutions to the East Bay’s water needs to heart felt commentaries by longtime local residents brought to tears over “the jewel of our landscape.”
The real story on Monday evening in Sutter Hill was not necessarily EBMUD’s proposed plan, they have been talking about raising Pardee for years, but what unites diverse residents of Amador and Calaveras counties. The Mokelumne River brought out ranchers, farmers, liberals, conservatives, recreationalists and conservationists and put them all on the same page. The hearing found a “conservative” supervisor from Amador County craning his neck to listen through a window to a “liberal” supervisor from Calaveras County and nodding his head in agreement. In difficult socio-economic times maybe there is a lesson to be learned on what unites our foothill community in this outpouring of reaction to further manipulation of the Mokelumne River.
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