Amador County – Amador Water Agency staff last week said it did not expect to be fined for two spills in the last few weeks, including 15,000 gallons of raw sewage estimated to have leaked in Martell.

AWA General Manager Gene Mancebo said the Office of Emergency Services was informed right away, and other state agencies were notified of both incidents. He said that if regulating agencies felt there was some health risks, they would have ordered action to sanitize the areas.

AWA was required to notify people in the vicinity of the sewage leak in Martell, discovered December 1st, but no sanitizing occurred. He said if rain occurs, the wastewater either becomes very diluted or it is carried a far distance. The agencies believe the water did not escape the swell ditch in which it leaked.

Both leaks were found after the storms before Thanksgiving. The sewer leak was near Wal-Mart, and a raw water spill occurred on Mace Meadow Golf Course, possibly two weeks before its discovery, November 29th.

Mancebo did not know if there would be fines, but the agency submitted reports and took immediate action when the spills were found. He said the state takes into consideration how well you try to avoid leaks before they give fines, and the “AWA has had a pretty good track record of trying to maintain its systems.”

The Mace Meadow spill prompted staff to purchase a used filter to cleanse the backwash from the Buckhorn water treatment plant. Operations Manager Chris McKeage reported the plan to the AWA board of directors December 9th, saying that staff was driving to pick up the 15-year-old filter as the meeting was under way.

McKeage said with the filter, they would be able to put the raw backwash water back into the creek from which it is taken. He said it would “reduce by about 90 percent the raw water we send to the golf course,” where it is stored in the winter, and sprayed in the summer for irrigation.

McKeage said: “This is a half-a-million-dollar project we’re going to try to do in-house for $60,000. We’re trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat.” He said the process would need state approval, and they were trying to get it operational by February, and permanently operational by summer. The agency can have no run-off in winter at the golf course storage ponds.

Mancebo said filtering the backwash likely would lead to a need to alter the discharge permit at the golf course, as the sludge would be more concentrated.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.