Calaveras Swimming Hole Could Become Available Again!

Old swimming hole may become park - Calaveras County may take title to PG&E parcel

GLENCOE - Calaveras County officials are hoping a 10-acre chunk of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. land at a historic swimming hole on the Mokelumne River may soon become a county park.

But while some say the site is a "gem" and the best, most pristine swimming hole in the region, there are many obstacles to the plan, including the deeply rutted dirt road leading to the river and the yet-unanswered question of whether PG&E will cooperate.

"There's a place here where you throw your kid in, and they slide down giggling and goofing," said Calaveras County Supervisor Steve Wilensky, who represents the part of the county that includes the site and who said he first visited this stretch of river in 1971. "It's so cool and perfect," he said of the relatively tranquil pool that interrupts a river famous for its rapids.

The debate over the site - a relatively tranquil pool that interrupts a river famous for its rapids - is now taking on some urgency because dozens of parcels equalling more than 7,000 acres of PG&E land along the upper Mokelumne River may soon be given to new owners under a 2004 deal that resolved PG&E's 2001 bankruptcy. The Mokelumne lands are among 140,000 acres of PG&E lands statewide that are being transferred to new owners - possibly government agencies or nonprofit organizations - who will manage the land in the public interest.

At the moment, the Ponderosa Way parcel is not on the list to be considered for a new caretaker, said Mary Adelzadeh, a regional land-conservation manager for the Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council, the entity created by state regulators to manage PG&E land redistribution.

Adelzadeh said it is up to PG&E to designate which lands it needs to keep for utility operations.

PG&E Spokeswoman Jennifer Zerwer said "it's too early to say" whether the Ponderosa Way parcel might ultimately be given to new owners. But she said that even if the site remains under PG&E ownership, the company may make "recreation enhancements" under the terms of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission relicensing deal the company struck in 2000 for its hydroelectric projects on the Mokelumne.

Pete Bell, the Foothill Conservancy representative on the Ecological Resources Committee that oversees the terms of the relicensing deal, said keeping the land under PG&E ownership might be the best route to assure recreation access there. Recreation is required under the relicensing agreement.

Wilensky said he does not care if the county owns the site, and a lease of the PG&E land might be one option. His goals are to install a gate at Highway 26 and Ponderosa Way to close the park during rainy season to repair the road and install a parking area and bathroom "so people stop fouling the river."

For decades, families have frolicked in the swimming hole where the Ponderosa Way bridge crossed the Mokelumne River near Glencoe.

By Dana M. Nichols
September 07, 2009
Record Staff Writer