EBMUD Board of Directors will not appeal WSMP 2040 ruling

The East Bay Municipal Utility District’s Board of Directors voted unanimously in closed session Tuesday not to appeal the decision in the litigation that set aside its Water Supply Management Program (WSMP) 2040 but instead to follow the court’s recommendations for supplementing the environmental analysis in the District’s 30-year water plan.

In a ruling issued on April 11, 2011 by Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Timothy M. Frawley, EBMUD was directed to study several areas in greater detail, including potential impacts on the Middle Bar segment of the Mokelumne River to the Miwok ancestral gathering places and the potential for involvement in neighboring Contra Costa Water District’s Los Vaqueros Reservoir expansion.

EBMUD staff has been directed by its Board to supplement its existing environmental analysis for the WSMP 2040 to include the detailed analysis recommended by Judge Frawley.

“We’re going to listen really closely to the judge’s criticism and correct the areas he thought we could have done better in,” said John A. Coleman, president of the EBMUD Board of Directors. “The process will be open and involve all interested parties.” The District will begin the process in June, holding meetings in local and upcountry areas near Mokelumne River in July with the goal of publishing a new draft document for review

in October. The issuance of the draft would be followed by more public meetings locally and upcountry, a lengthy comment period before the Board would consider certification of a final Program EIR and approval of the program in February 2012.

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