Amador County – The Amador Water Agency on Monday urged its Upcountry customers in the Amador Water System to conserve water, due to a power outage that deactivated a transfer pump that feeds the Buckhorn Water Treatment Plant. AWA notified TSPN of power outages affecting the plant and the pump station, and urging conservation in water usage for the 4,000 AWS customers in the Upcountry. AWA Interim General Manager Gene Mancebo said a power had deactivated pumps that deliver water to the treatment plant, and the agency was unsure when power would be restored, so the agency was urging conservation. He said power went out at the Buckhorn treatment plant before that, but it was not a problem because the plant was operating on emergency generators. He said power at the plant may have gone out late Sunday night, and the pump station’s power went out sometime before 9 a.m. Monday. The pump sends water from the Tiger Creek area to the Buckhorn plant, which disseminates it to customers. Mancebo said various storage tanks in the Amador Water System have water, but they “do not know when power will be restored at this time, so (AWA is) asking for conservation. Affected areas are in the Pine Grove and Mace Meadow areas, and all AWS customers. Mancebo said the agency was trying to get updates from Pacific Gas & Electric. He said about 4,000 customers are affected, and anyone in the Upcountry area that is on the AWS should conserve water. He said “we have water in our tanks but we just have to use it sparingly,” and “it just depends on how people can conserve water” to see how long they can make the water last. At about noon Monday, Mancebo said PB&E reported that it had a 60,000-volt, high-voltage line down, and were “working on a couple of options,” one being a short-term fix of rerouting power on the grid to bypass the down line, which could quickly bring power back at the Buckhorn feeding pump. If that did not work, the “long-term” fix would be to repair the downed line. Mancebo said the switching may not work if the problems of downed trees and lines were too widespread. As of noon Monday, AWA was still asking for water conservation by its AWS Upcountry customers. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.