Jane Hundertmark

Rev. Lloyd Schneider was among foothill residents who braved monsoon conditions to attend the EBMUD hearing October 13.

After a six-hour meeting on a stormy Tuesday afternoon, the East Bay Municipal Utility District Board of Directors voted to keep the expansion of Pardee Reservoir in their 2040 water plan. The October 13 decision lays the groundwork for the destruction of the Mokelumne River’s Middle Bar reach with a new, higher Pardee Dam at some future time of the district’s choosing.

“We’re clearly unhappy with the Pardee result,” said Foothill Conservancy Executive Director Chris Wright after the meeting. “EBMUD ignored overwhelming opposition from its own constituents; local, state and federal elected officials; organizations and businesses in approving a plan that could destroy miles of the Mokelumne River.”

But we’re not done yet. In November, our organization, Friends of the River, and the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance filed suit in Amador County Superior Court to challenge the environmental impact report for the EBMUD 2040 plan.

“The Mokelumne is not the property of East Bay MUD, and they are not above the law,” Wright said when announcing the litigation. “We will do what it takes to protect this special river for communities, people, fish, and wildlife.”

EBMUD’s decision

The October EBMUD vote was the culmination of more than three years of water planning by the large East Bay utility. Unfortunately, before March of this year, EBMUD didn’t bother to ask Sierra foothill residents or the broader public what they thought about destroying more of the Mokelumne River.

By the time of the vote, we had built a large and diverse coalition opposed to the reservoir expansion. When the City of Berkeley, the City of Plymouth, Democratic Assemblywomen Nancy Skinner and Alyson Huber, and Republican Congressman Dan Lungren are all on the same page, you know that New Pardee truly is a bad idea. The district received more than 1,500 comments on the Environmental Impact Report, including many Pardee opposition comments from EBMUD ratepayers.

The EBMUD vote followed testimony from nearly 50 speakers -- foothill residents who traveled to the meeting by bus and local residents who braved the rain and wind to speak directly to their elected representatives. At the meeting, the dam opponents presented the long list of elected officials, public agencies, organizations and businesses who opposed the Pardee Expansion.

The many issues raised by the speakers on October 13 and over the course of the last seven months helped persuade three of the seven EBMUD directors to vote to remove New Pardee from the water plan. That failed on a 3-3 tie and the decision ultimately went the other way.

The board did eliminate the most destructive of five different options proposed for New Pardee, which would have drowned not only the entire Middle Bar reach of the Mokelumne River but nearly a mile of the Electra run above Highway 49. But three of the four remaining options would require removal of the historic 1912 Middle Bar Bridge, drown at least a mile of the Mokelumne, and destroy cultural and historical resources, critical restoration habitat for salmon and steelhead, and the potential for commercial whitewater boating on the combined Electra-Middle Bar run.

The Pardee expansion is “... out of synch with the times we’re in now and where we will be in 20 to 30 years,” said EBMUD President Doug Linney at the October 13 meeting. “It will be an albatross around our neck, a symbol of everything the East Bay Municipal Utility District is not. Taking it off the table forces us to focus on the other solutions. This is about who we are as an organization.”

After Linney’s articulate and heartfelt statements, the EBMUD board made a few concessions. The most significant was voting to help “upcountry interests” secure National Wild and Scenic River designation for the Mokelumne. Protection of the river through National Wild and Scenic River designation is one of our long-term goals.

After the meeting, EBMUD Director Lesa McIntosh said, “I have enjoyed the Moke River’s beautiful rapids and breathtaking scenery. I am more than happy to support its Wild and Scenic designation. It seems only fitting. I also think it important for EBMUD to not only support this effort, but to also work at assisting in making it happen. The Mokelumne is a jewel.”

EBMUD also pledged not to build New Pardee without support from various upcountry interests, including local governments, tribal, environmental and historical preservation groups. But it’s clear they’re willing to move forward without everyone agreeing to their plan (they said as much).

It’s also clear that some of our local officials are willing to give up the Mokelumne for, as Calaveras County District Two Supervisor Steve Wilensky put it, “$24 of glass beads and trinkets,” a reference to the sale of Manhattan Island to the Dutch in the 17th century.

For example, at a September meeting of the Amador County Board of Supervisors, District Five Supervisor Brian Oneto suggested that he would consider flooding the Middle Bar reach of the Mokelumne in exchange for improvements to Middle Bar Road, a new Middle Bar Bridge, and some water. Supervisor Louis Boitano, in contrast, called anything EBMUD would give the county, “crumbs.”

Two weeks after the vote, the EBMUD board revisited the drought rationing level in its 2040 plan. Over the vocal objections of the losing directors, a four-person majority increased the rationing level from the 10 percent approved on October 13 to “up to 15 percent.”

While that action reduces the need for the Pardee expansion, we cannot sit idly by and wait for EBMUD to make up its mind about the Mokelumne as it chips away at the strong, united local opposition.

Next steps: Litigation and fundraising

Our litigation addresses EBMUD’s failure to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act. It’s only the second lawsuit we’ve filed in 20 years (we won the other, a land-use case in El Dorado County). We have a strong case and are confident the court will agree.

Even with attorneys willing to work at reasonable rates, CEQA lawsuits are extremely expensive. We expect this one to cost tens of thousands of dollars, a significant sum for a small organization like ours. If you can contribute $20, $50, $100 or more to help defray our legal costs and save the Mokelumne, we’d be most grateful.

We’re planning a Save the Moke fundraiser now. If you can help with planning or organizing, please contact Randy at 295-4900. And if you can’t help beforehand, plan to come! Watch our website for the date and time.

Thanks to everyone who has helped so far

We are very grateful to everyone who took time to send an e-mail, write a letter, come to a public meeting, ride with us on the bus to Oakland through the October monsoon, sign on to support Wild and Scenic designation, come on our benefit raft trips, or otherwise work this year to Save the Moke. The outpouring of public support for the river has been a real inspiration to Conservancy members and staff who’ve worked to protect and restore the Mokelumne for so very long.

With your help, we will save this river!

P.S. If you haven’t done it yet, please go to our website and endorse National Wild and Scenic River designation for the Mokelumne. Then tell five of your friends to do the same. More than 3,000 people and 100 local businesses are on our list today!