Despite Mixed Messages, Grow Site Eradication Apparently Underway In EBMUD Watershed

Official response to public questions about the safety of area hiking trails has been notably absent despite persistent inquiries by Lamorinda Patch and private citizens after a park police officer was fired upon in the July 25.

There has been no official word on what park police called the "attempted murder" of the patrolling EBRPD police officer since July 28, when a near the scene of the shooting. Conflicting accounts of measures taken in the wake of the gunfire have left many residents in the dark and wondering.

"I am deeply concerned by reports from the EBRPD police department that one of their officers was the target of high powered rifle fire while patrolling EBMUD land," Moragan Scott Bowhay wrote in a letter to EBMUD Directors Katie Foulkes and Frank Mellon Aug. 2. "I am concerned not only for the safety of the “rangers,” but of any person using the trails or other land, whether “trespassing” or not."

In a response from EBMUD's Rischa Cole on Aug. 4, Bowhay was told: "SWAT teams have been conducting sweeps in the area to find and eradicate the grow site that is suspected as the reason that the incident you heard about took place. Although a grow site has not yet been found, trails have been reopened in areas that have been checked and determined not to house grow sites."

Bowhay and others who have contacted Lamorinda Patch expressed confusion - and frustration - over the absence of substantive updates on the shooting and presence of grow sites in the watershed.

"I mean, is there or isn't there?" said Jenna Perez of Moraga, who said she was stunned to see police officers racing up Camino Pablo to Rancho Laguna Park the night of the shootout. "I haven't hiked up there since this happened."

Bowhay said he questioned the apparent discrepancy in a second note to EBMUD and received this response on Aug. 5, again from Rischa Cole in EBMUD's office of the secretary:

"The apparent discrepancy between reports you have received from EBPRD and EBMUD is solely a function of a rapidly evolving situation on the ground," Cole wrote. "As of yesterday, a low flyover helicopter surveillance did in fact locate a specific grow site, where crews are now conducting removal and cleanup."

The scene of the July 25 exchange of gunfire, miles south of Moraga on the watershed and almost on the Contra Costa/Alameda County line, is both rugged and remote, though trails do line the area. Recent searches have been conducted by helicopter-borne members of the EBRPD Special Response Team and the Alameda County Sheriff's SWAT unit.

Law enforcement officers said the area has been home to grow operations in the past, although no one has yet drawn a direct connection between the "several armed men" believed to have fired on the officer July 25 and any organized marijuana growing operation.