State Funding Will Allow For Thinning Around TUD Infrastructure

TUD courtesy image

Sonora, CA — The Tuolumne Utilities District announces that it will receive a $297,869 grant from CAL Fire.

The money will be used to better protect critical infrastructure in high-hazard wildfire areas. The district will use a combination of hand thinning and mastication fuel treatments under the direction of a licensed forester. The work area is around eight water tanks and the Twain Harte Wastewater Treatment Facility.

TUD’s Interim General Manager, Don Perkins, states, “It is always exciting to receive grant funding for important district projects. The District works aggressively to seek grant funding in order to fund much-needed projects with a minimum impact to our ratepayers.  If these facilities were destroyed by a wildfire, it would be catastrophic as we have seen happen to other foothill communities.”

The money will become available in January and the work should be completed by March of 2024. The CAL Fire funding is from the California Climate Investments program that receives money from the Cap-And-Trade program that collects dollars from carbon credits purchased by higher polluting companies.