Mokelumne River - Boaters Needed

Mokelumne River - Boaters Needed

If you have the day off, can get the day off, have a furlough day or can even call in sick we need boaters at the October 13th EBMUD Board of Directors Meeting where they will vote to certify the Program Environmental Impact Report (PEIR) for their Water Supply Management Plan 2040.  As many of you already know at the centerpiece of EBMUD’s "preferred" portfolio are plans to raise Pardee Reservoir which would flood the Electra to Middle Bar Run on the Mokelumne River and hinder inclusion into the National Wild and Scenic River System for 37 miles of the North Fork and Main Mokelumne River from Salt Springs Dam to Highway 49. (This includes Devil’s Nose, Tiger Creek, Ponderosa, Electra & Middle Bar)
 
While encouraged, it will not be required that you speak since the Mokelumne River Protection Alliance will be lining up folks to do just that. All that is needed are boaters wearing life jackets & helmets  - please no paddles as they may make EBMUD security nervous.  
 
A rally with other stakeholders will be held at the entrance at 12:30 PM and the meeting will be held at 1:00 PM in EBMUD's Administration Center Board Room - 375 11th Street, Oakland, CA 94607. Use the following link to find more information from the Foothill Conservancy and Boof.com. 

http://www.foothillconservancy.org/pages/pardee.cgi

http://forums.boof.com/showthread.php?p=24443#post24443

Transportation will be provided by Foothill Conservancy  for anyone who can meet in Jackson at 9 am. Sign up now by calling Randy at 209-295-4900 or emailing randy@foothillconservancy.org . We need to have a number of people sign up ASAP to make this work. Please consider a $5 - $10 donation to help pay for the bus.
 
Below for more perspective you will find a recent letter to the editor and an excerpt from BLM’s letter to EBMUD.  As always - THANK YOU - for any help you can give either by attending or getting this info out to someone who can.  
 
SYATBM or SYOTR!
Theresa Simsiman
 
An EBMUD Question or Two

Who are these whitewater rafters that are so adamantly against EBMUD’s WSMP 2040 option to flood an upstream stretch of the Mokelumne River? The Department of Boating and Waterways has put a face to this question in their recent Non-Motorized Boating in California study released in March 2009.
 
The study highlights that approximately 2.5 million Californians identify themselves as non-motorized boaters participating in an estimated 48 million user days every year and pumping an estimated $1.7 billion per year into the California economy. With that piece of the pie in danger of disappearing, it is no wonder politicians like Congressman Dan Lungren and Assemblywoman Alyson Huber stepped up to protect their constituents’ livelihoods, urging EBMUD to consider other options that would not flood the Mokelumne River.
 
Yet whitewater rafters are only one aspect of the bigger Mokelumne picture.  Let’s not forget the landowners, state and federal agencies, other utilities like PG&E and organizations like the Foothill Conservancy & California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, which begs another question.  If EBMUD were serious about water supply for the East Bay, why would they include in their preferred water supply portfolio an option that could be stuck for years in litigation limbo?

Excerpt from Bureau of Land Management Letter to EBMUD

BLM Folsom Field Office recognizes the need for EBMUD to have a long term plan for reliable water supply to meet customer demand in the future but BLM currently cannot support the raising Pardee Reservoir Alternative.  BLM has recently completed the Sierra Resource Management Plan (SRMP) and Record of Decision February 2008 which evaluated and concluded the North and Main Forks of Mokelumne River both Eligible and Suitable for possible inclusion into the National Wild and Scenic River System.  Outstanding and Remarkable Values identified in the BLM SRMP included cultural, water quality, and scenic values.  Inundation of up to 4000 feet upstream of Highway 49 Bridge would have a direct and adverse affect on these values as well as a direct and adverse effect on the free flow condition of the river.