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Sharing the Wealth

A proposal being floated by East Bay MUD to take water from the American River and share it with other districts is drawing fire from environmentalists and Sacramento officials.

EBMUD has been unsuccessfully trying to gain access to the American River for three decades. In 1970, the agency contracted with BurRec to take 150,000 acre feet annually, but Sacramento, along with environmental groups, protested and sued. In 1990, Judge Richard Hodge ruled that EBMUD could divert some water, but placed severe limitations on the amounts it could take in dry years. Even after Hodge's decision, the squabbling has continued almost unabated.

EBMUD's Charles Hardy confirmed that the agency has been talking to several districts, including those in Contra Costa, Santa Clara, and Alameda Counties, and to CALFED about its proposal. In dry years, EBMUD would use its entire allocation of American River water, but in years when supply is plentiful, EBMUD would sell it to the other districts. Hardy says that EBMUD would gain a reliable drought year source for its customers, while the others would get cleaner, purer water to blend with their current Delta supply. The joint effort might also be eligible for CALFED funding, saving EBMUD millions of dollars for new infrastructure, he says.

Sacramento officials are miffed. "We're disappointed [EBMUD] announced this without consulting the American River stakeholders," says Jonas Minton of the Sacramento Water Forum. Actual details of the proposal have been scarce, Minton says, but it's clear that EBMUD would have to go back to court. "Judge Hodge's ruling explicitly provides that any water diverted by EBMUD was only for the use by EBMUD's customers."

Environmentalists fear that if EBMUD succeeds, the result could be an upstream diversion, which they say would damage habitat and recreation, and a possible expansion of Los Vaqueros reservoir to accommodate the additional storage needs. Jim Jones of the Save the American River Association calls EBMUD "out of synch" with the thinking of most of today's water managers. "EBMUD has this tendency to come up with these schemes and see if they can make them fly."

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