By JAMES DAMSCHRODER

The Union Democrat

A web of mostly open, earthen ditches, many dating back to the Gold Rush, convey water to Tuolumne Utilities District customers.

These ditches have two different stories — one filled with history, recreation and a thriving riparian environment — the other of unreliability, about 40 percent water loss from leaks and evaporation, and contamination.

Over the years, there have been several attempts to pipe the ditches or find solutions to patch their inefficiencies. So far, only temporary solutions have been found.

Jerry Whitehead, TUD's water master, said the district has lined about 11 miles of ditch since 1996 with Gunite, which is a concrete-based mixture applied with a high-pressured hose. The substance is thought to be effective for about 30 years.

The Tuolumne Ditch System Sustainability Project is the most recent attempt to find long-term solutions for meeting the ditches' dual demands.

"It's almost a religion around here," TUD General Manager Pete Kampa said of the ditches. "People really take it seriously on both sides."

Tuolumne County isn't alone — many mountain counties are using ditches and flumes constructed during the Gold Rush, and are facing the same leaky problems.

Recently, Placer County piped its ditches, Kampa said, adding it was a long, volatile and expensive venture.

The area's ditches are drenched in history. They started as a way to get water from the South Fork of the Tuolumne River to lower-elevation mining operations in Columbia, Sonora and Tuolumne.

The system, at its longest, snaked for 250 miles along steep, granite mountainsides, through deep forests and in and out of a series of reservoirs and creeks.

Now there are about 55 miles of ditches that transport water from Lyons Reservoir to 14 water treatment plants serving about 13,000 connections and more than 600 agricultural and irrigation customers.

"Groups want them preserved," Kampa said. "They know that once you take the water out of them, they'll disappear."

One of the priorities of the new ditch plan is to map out and define what parts of the ditch are historic. This is being studied by TUD, and the results will be sent to the National Register of Historic Places to determine if they need to be preserved as historic sites.

Because the water has never been piped, the ditches have become more than a conveyance system. They slowly have blended into county topography as riparian ecosystems.

On a recent day, Jerry Lambden, of Castro Valley, was fishing in the Main Canal in Twain Harte.

With one rainbow trout in the cooler, Lambden, who's owned a cabin in Twain Harte for 35 years, said he's been fishing the ditch for years.

"They plant trout in here," Lambden said. "It takes a lot of work to catch them. You really have to study the water."

"I bring my grandkids up here," he added. "It's always fun."

The ditches have also become relied upon by grazing lands running adjacent to them. This cheap water source for grazing has been noted as one of the reasons the county has been able to afford to be kept relatively undeveloped.

Recently, TUD was trying to stop the flow of the seasonal Algerine Ditch because of large leaks in the dirt ditch. The shutoff was halted because of the potential impacts on the area's grazing lands, where cattle were drinking from the ditches.

"If it dried up completely, the water wouldn't be affordable," said Sasha Farkas, Tuolumne County Farm Bureau vice president. "Ag operations could stop."

Kampa said that one option would be to build a large treatment plant among the higher elevation ditches which could serve a majority of TUD's customers, before the water becomes increasingly contaminated as it travels to lower elevation ditch sections. The lower elevation ditches would be kept flowing but only for agricultural purposes.

This is not an old issue. With the enactment of the Safe Drinking Water Act in the early 1980s, then owner of the ditch system, Pacific Gas and Electric, was required to either pipe the ditches or improve water treatment plants.

Instead, PG&E transferred responsibility when it sold the water system to the county. Finding the cost of piping to be too expensive, the county renovated its water treatment plants to comply with the new regulations.

TUD adopted the responsibility when it was formed in 1992. As the population in the area grew, TUD started to see an increase in the use of the ditch system as a recreational trail and residential homes being built too close to the water.

In a TUD report, it says that county and city planning lacked an understanding of the ditch system and built developments too close to the drinking water supply.

More specifically, many roads and storm drains have been constructed to utilize the ditches to convey storm water into them. Also, the Water Quality Plan completed in 2006, revealed that creeks and lakes fed by the ditch system within the Sullivan Creek and Phoenix Lake watersheds were contaminated by high levels of fecal bacteria, likely caused by failed septic systems.

This has led to the newest attempt to find a compromise between the ditches' stories — the Tuolumne Ditch System Sustainability Project.

"There likely needs to be a balance found," said John Buckley, director of Central Sierra Environmental Resource Council.

Ideally, there would be a a means of maintaining sections of the ditch for public or biological resources, while piping the very worst sections where the most leaks occur, he said.

"This is one of those highly emotional, controversial issues," Buckley added. "There's plenty of middle ground with win-win solutions."

Over the next few years, the ditch system project will look to find that middle ground.

"It's going to be a hot topic," Kampa said.

Contact James Dam-schroder at jdamschroder@ uniondemocrat.com or 588-4526.