A lawsuit claims that East Bay Municipal Utility District violated state environmental law by omitting analysis of a proposed new Pardee Dam's impacts on the Mokelumne River from its 2040 water plan review.

The suit was filed by the nonprofit Foothill Conservancy and other resource-protection advocacy groups Nov. 19 in Amador County Superior Court.

Including a new, taller Pardee Dam as an option in what is called a "program" Environmental Impact Report, EBMUD officials said it was proper to defer analysis of effect upstream and downstream on the river until such time as a dam project was firmly planned. Only at such a time, in a "project" EIR, EBMUD said, would it be required to analyze a dam's effects on wildlife and habitat in the river canyon.

Plaintiffs include Friends of the River and the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance. Plaintiffs argue that the distinction between program and project has been held in court to be too weak under the California Environmental Quality Act to base a deferral of a full EIR. They quote from the previous case of Stanislaus Natural Heritage Project v. County of Stanislaus.

"A decision to 'tier' environmental review does not excuse a governmental entity from complying with CEQA's mandate to prepare (a report including) a detailed statement setting forth all significant effects on the environment of the proposed project," a court held. "Deferral of a site-specific analysis from a program EIR to a later EIR is only allowed if the analysis is currently infeasible. ..."

The agency's 2040 water plan was approved by EBMUD directors last month.

EBMUD spokesman Charles Hardy said the agency had not yet seen the civil complaint and could not comment on it.

The lawsuit seeks to overturn the Environmental Impact Report on which the agency seeks to base its long-term water plan. Upstream, wildlife habitat and whitewater rafting stretches would be flooded, and downstream, already imperiled fisheries would be affected in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, plaintiffs noted.

"The Mokelumne River is not the property of East Bay MUD, and they are not above the law," said Foothill Conservancy executive director Chris Wright in announcing the litigation.

The suit also charges EBMUD took only inadequate account of foothills residents' comments in preparing the document. They cite agency failure to book a hall in Amador County large enough to hold the hundreds of residents who arrived to record public comments.

CSPA Executive Director Bill Jennings said in announcing the suit, "Having spurned reasonable alternatives that would have assured its customers of a reliable water supply, EBMUD now demands more from a river that has no 'more' to give, if it's going to survive. Enough is enough!"

The current case is only the second lawsuit filed by Foothill Conservancy in its 20-year history, officials said.