Fence to protect El Dorado County drinking water

Construction is expected to begin next month on a 2,250-foot-long fence to protect the quality of drinking water drawn from the El Dorado Irrigation District's Jenkinson Lake.

The water utility serves nearly 100,000 residents in El Dorado County.

The board of directors on Monday awarded a $95,997 contract to Arrow Fencing for the project designed to keep swimmers and fishermen at least 500 feet away from the intake line for the water treatment plant. The 640-acre lake in the Sly Park Recreation Area near Pollock Pines is the source of about 50 percent of the district's water.

The fence, which will extend across the lake's main dam and along the shoreline on either side, is being installed to satisfy a state Department of Public Health requirement to prevent body contact activities, such as swimming, in the area nearest the water treatment plant intake. The measure will permit the district to continue to allow swimming, boating, water skiing and other recreational activities involving body contact without making costly improvements to its treatment plant.

In addition to the fence, an existing buoy line will be replaced with a log boom line to prevent people from entering the 500-foot zone from the water, said engineer Mitch Russo. A separate contract for the boom line, as well as guardrail barriers to be installed on the shoulder of Mormon Emigrant Trail near the dam will be awarded in 2008, he said.

Russo said the fence will be 6 feet high along the shoreline and 8 feet high across the dam face.

The project will not interfere with access to trails around the lake, he said.

Don Pearson, district recreation director, said the zone would be off limits to fishermen as well as swimmers.

Although body contact typically is not an issue with fishermen, Pearson said, "They do leave a tremendous amount of litter behind, which could go into the lake, so we want to keep them out of there."

Steve Setoodeh, director of facilities management, said, "We are asking citizens and fishermen to cooperate with us."

The fence is a last resort, Setoodeh said. If state health officials determined the district was not protecting water quality, he said, it could be required to ban all body-contact activities at the lake, or make $30 million to $40 million worth improvements to its water treatment plant.

Director George Osborne voted against awarding the contract for the fence, saying he was not convinced that fishing and swimming in the area threatened water quality. Osborne said he would rather pursue a county ordinance authorizing fines for anyone who entered the restricted area.

"It's such a beautiful piece of ground, and to put a fence there just degrades it," he said.

Russo said a community meeting will be scheduled to discuss the fencing project, and information will be posted on the district's Web site, www.eid.org.