In mid-March, The East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) Board of Directors affirmed its support for state Wild & Scenic River protection for the Mokelumne River. Although the utility has supported protection of the river in the past, the new resolution specifically urges the California Legislature and Governor Jerry Brown to pass and sign legislation to protect 35 miles of the river in Amador and Calaveras Counties in the Sierra Nevada foothills.
The new resolution unanimously adopted by the EBMUD Board may revive the possibility for introduction of a Mokelumne Wild & Scenic River bill in the current session of the California Legislature. Senator Loni Hancock championed a bill to protect 37 miles of the Mokelumne last year and successfully shepherded it through the Senate and the Assembly Natural Resources Committee, only to have the bill stalled without a vote in Assembly Appropriations, at the insistence of Assemblymember Frank Bigelow.