CCWD asks UPA to keep negotiating

A letter from the Calaveras County Water District board to its Utica Power Authority counterparts calls for continued negotiations to keep a water rights dispute from being settled in court.

The letter, signed by CCWD Board President Bob Dean, states “public agencies such as CCWD, Utica Power Authority and its members owe their constituencies a duty to exhaust all possible avenues to resolve disputes before resorting to the courts particularly where, as here, the cost of litigation is likely to run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
 

 The dispute is about water rights from Hunters Reservoir near Hathaway Pines running down to the Angels Powerhouse, and whether or not CCWD retained any claims to those rights when it exited UPA in 2004.

Dean said “it’s really hard to say” how close the two sides may be to reaching a resolution, but “I personally think there’s not any outstanding issue too far beyond ... a settlement that could be made outside of costly litigation that affects the people of each (agency).”

He said a “good and substantive meeting” occurred between the dueling districts Monday.    

The CCWD letter asks that settlement negotiations be modified so that one elected official each from CCWD, UPA and UPA’s constituent agencies — the city of Angels Camp and Union Public Utility District — participate directly in the negotiations.

“They need to be informed while the negotiations are going on,” Dean said. “They should be present not necessarily as part of the process but as observers more than anything else.”

The letter is addressed to UPA Acting Chairman and Angels Camp City Councilman Paul Raggio, Angels Camp Mayor Jack Lynch and UPUD President Bill Riedel.

Lynch said Wednesday the UPA board would discuss the letter in closed session at its next meeting Tuesday but declined to comment further at this time because the matter involves pending litigation.

Dean said he remains hopeful the matter can be settled without a years-old grudge between the two agencies being settled in court. UPA has filed suit but CCWD has not yet been served with the complaint. That action would trigger the litigation process, according to the CCWD letter.

“I’ve got to remain optimistic,” Dean said.