Amador County – The Jackson City Council last week took a recommendation from its Sewer Rate Committee to look at options for the city wastewater system.

City Manager Mike Daly said the “main option now is taking some of our effluent and discharging it onto land, whether that is onto ranchland, or storing it until a wetter time of year, when there will be more dilution.”

The Regional Water Quality Control Board has a Basin Plan and “strongly discourages agencies from discharging into intermittent streams or otherwise impaired bodies of water – any bodies of water.”

Because Jackson Creek water is used for a potable water source downstream, after it flows into Lake Amador, the California Department of Public health has been vocal on the permit. Daly said the Buena Vista Road treatment plant for Oaks Community mobile home park near Ione uses the lake’s water for drinking.

Due to that, the city has been required to have a permit to discharge into a waterway, the Jackson Creek, and to renew it every five years. It was last renewed in 2007, and in 2012, Jackson will be required to meet state code which says that the city’s effluent discharge must make up less than 5 percent of the volume of Lake Amador at all times.

“That’s the driving force,” Daly said, looking at options for alternatives. City consultants Stantec, formerly ECO:LOGIC, recommended a preferred alternative in a report last July that would cost $7 million. That prompted formation of the Sewer Rate Committee, which discussed supplemental discharge of raw water into the creek, and “directly piping effluent to Lake Amador, so it doesn’t go into Jackson Creek.”

Jackson also looked into purchasing raw water from the Amador Water Agency and releasing it into the creek to dilute the effluent, but Daly said “there were lot of issues that were identified” by the AWA attorney, and “there appear to be other options that are more affordable.”

He said, assuming the city must cease discharge into the creek, they “must submit a water rights petition, to stop discharging into the creek.” The process has some documentation required by the California Environmental Quality Act requirements associated with that permit request.

Daly said there will be an environmental review of various options that have been proposed, and are under consideration for solving the Jackson “permit situation.”

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