EBMUD Approves Pardee Dam Expansion

By Katherine Evatt and Steve Evans

In the face of overwhelming opposition and impassioned public testimony, the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) board recently voted 4-2 to include options for a new and expanded Pardee Dam on the Mokelumne River in its 2040 water plan. At the same time, the board voted 6-0 to work with river conservation interests to secure National Wild and Scenic River protection for the Mokelumne River. In response to the vote to expand Pardee, Friends of the River, the Foothills Conservancy and other conservation groups are considering possible litigation.

The EBMUD board approved its water plan after much debate, following hours of testimony from nearly 70 speakers — including foothill residents who traveled to the meeting by bus and EBMUD ratepayers who braved the rain and wind to speak directly to their elected representatives. At the meeting, the dam opponents presented a long list of elected officials, public agencies, organizations and businesses opposed the Pardee expansion.

The EBMUD board was split over whether to retain the dam in its plan, but ultimately approved a motion that retained four different Pardee options. The smallest would avoid flooding any of the Mokelumne upstream of the existing Pardee Reservoir. The largest would drown the river, its cultural and historical resources, the historic 1912 Middle Bar Bridge, whitewater recreation areas, and wildlife and fish habitat up to 1,000 feet upstream of the Highway 49 Bridge. Three of the four options inundate part of river recommended for National Wild and Scenic River protection by the Bureau of Land Management.

EBMUD Board President Doug Linney was one of two board members to oppose the proposed expansion, which he thinks will be an “albatross” around EBMUD’s neck. “It’s a symbol of everything the East Bay Municipal Utility District is not,” he said. Fellow board member Andy Katz voted with Linney against the expansion, while Lesa McIntosh, John Coleman, William Patterson, and Katy Foulkes voted for expansion. Board member Frank Mellon missed the vote.

River advocates found little comfort in the adopted resolution, which states that EBMUD will not build a new dam without support from “upcountry” community, government, conservation, historic preservation, business, tribal, and recreation stakeholders. The adoption of the four Pardee expansion alternatives in the water plan is a programmatic decision. In order to actually build an expanded Pardee dam and reservoir, EBMUD will have to spend considerable effort and money to produce a site-specific environmental impact report (EIR).

Nevertheless, as noted by Friends of the River’s Ron Stork, “The decision means that EBMUD’s political and planning energies have been committed to drowning more of the Mokelumne River. For a District that isn’t growing in land area and has just completed a major expansion of its water supply system by tapping into American River water through the newly constructed Freeman Diversion, the decision to embark on an expensive, environmentally damaging, and unreliable new supply is puzzling and troubling.”

Although EBMUD’s support of Wild & Scenic protection of the Mokelumne River is a step in the right direction, it seemed clear from the companion motion to expand Pardee that at least a slim majority of the EBMUD Board won’t support protection of the portion of the river downstream of Highway 49 that would be flooded by an expanded Pardee.

Friends of the River, the Foothill Conservancy, and other conservation organizations are considering their legal options to challenge the adequacy of the current programmatic EIR for the water plan. It’s clear that EBMUD ignored viable alternatives, such as improved demand management and partnering with the Contra Costa Water District to reserve water storage behind CCWD’s proposed enlargement of the offstream Los Vaqueros Reservoir. In addition, EBMUD’s plan completely fails to address the high cost of dam expansion and the impact on utility rates. Enlarging Pardee is undoubtedly the most expensive water option under consideration by EBMUD and it is likely that EBMUD ratepayers may eventually object to this cost by voting in new board members.

For more information,  visit: www.friendsoftheriver.org/savethemoke