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Foothill residents speak out against proposed Pardee Reservoir expansion

Posted by: Maven on April 2, 2009 at 5:49 am

From IndyBay.org, this commentary by Katherine Evatt:

More than 185 local residents filled the San Andreas Town Hall on Monday, March 30 for an East Bay Municipal Utility District public hearing on the district’s draft Water Supply Management Program 2040. That plan includes a proposal to expand Pardee Reservoir in the Sierra foothills and drown miles of the Mokelumne River. EBMUD gets 90 percent of its water from the Mokelumne.

Thirty-five speakers of all ages and from all walks of life spoke out against the reservoir expansion. They urged EBMUD to find more progressive, less environmentally destructive alternatives for its future water supply.

Calaveras residents spoke personally and passionately about their love of the Mokelumne and the role it plays in their lives and the life and identity of their community.

Miwok tribal members Marge Grow and Arvada Fisher spoke about the sacred willow-gathering site that would be inundated by the reservoir, and its importance to their children, grandchildren and cultural memory. Grow, who brought along her granddaughter, showed the EBMUD directors in attendance a cradleboard crafted from willows collected at the site.

Judy Jebian of the Amador County Historical Society expressed the society’s opposition to the reservoir enlargement because of the damage that would be done to significant cultural and historic resources, including the 1912 Middle Bar Bridge. The bridge, which would be inundated by the expanded reservoir, is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Read more from IndyBay.org by clicking here.

April 2, 2009 · Filed Under Bay Area

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