By LENORE RUTHERFORD

The Union Democrat

Tuolumne Utilities District could begin work soon on finding alternatives to piping water from Lyons Dam to Tuolumne Utilities District's Twain Harte ditch.

TUD directors will consider Tuesday asking for bids on a project to look at the alternatives.

If the draft bid document is approved as is, the successful bidder would research the feasibility of piping the 5.6-mile stretch of ditch and compare that option with others.

It will also include preparation of an Environmental Information Document for submission to the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

In 2007, TUD was awarded a matching $390,300 federal appropriation, through the EPA, to complete a study of environmental impacts of piping the water in an abandoned railroad right of way. That money would be matched by TUD funds for a total of $780,600.

Last autumn, TUD directors said they preferred to consider other alternatives to piping, and the EPA agreed, District Engineer Tom Scesa said in the draft document.

For more than five years, the district worked on getting grant funding for a pipeline to improve the reliability of water delivery — a $20 million project district directors decided was too expensive.

The 5.6 mile canal now delivers water to 85 percent of Tuolumne County residents.

The water flows across several flumes, including one more than a mile long and supported by a wood-timber structure pinned to granite boulders along the side of the steep river canyon.

The ditch system was created in the 1850s to transport water to miners for hydraulic mining.

The system is susceptible to natural disasters, ranging from wildfires to falling boulders and trees. If the main flume burns in a wildfire, that could cut water off to most of the county for up to a week, TUD officials have said.

The project — which goes by the name of the South Fork Stanislaus Water Supply Reliability Project — aims to improve reliable water delivery.

"We need to complete the analysis as soon as possible," TUD Manager Peter Kampa said Friday. "We've already been awarded a 100-percent grant for up to $10 million for construction, but we only have two years left to spend that money or lose it."

That money comes from funding through Proposition 50 — the Water Security, Clean Drinking Water, Coastal and Beach Protection Act of 2002.

Contact Lenore Rutherford at lrutherford@uniondemocrat.com or 588-4529