Amador County – The Sutter Creek Sewer Committee meets at 1 p.m. today to discuss a list of “critical path issues” the city faces in its sewer system.
The city committee assigned a subcommittee to itemize these “critical path issues,” and time frames. City Manager Sean Rabe in a report for today’s meeting said he would recommend the committee look at the list, and spread sheets of pending issues and decisions, and “provide direction as appropriate.”
The Wastewater Planning Subcommittee was made up of Rabe, City Engineer Grant Reynolds, Planning Commissioner Robin Peters and Councilman Jim Swift. Rabe said the subcommittee was appointed June 20, and “put together a short list of options for the city’s wastewater planning.”
Rabe said the “subcommittee was also charged with creating a flow chart with critical path issues that need to be dealt with as soon as possible.” The list of issues “reflect a significant amount of work done by Robin Peters,” in an “attempt to capture the key issues with the city’s wastewater planning,” Rabe said.
He said a flowchart outlines “key policy and operational decisions that must be addressed as soon as possible” and he recommended the full committee address them, and make recommendations to the City Council. He also recommended they “use the flow chart to eliminate from further consideration some of the options listed.”
The critical issues include work that must be done on Amador Regional Sanitation Authority and Henderson Reservoir infrastructure by the end of next year, to 2016. It includes a lower drain replacement, adding spray fields to eliminate the need for an Ione secondary pond, and a buttressing project, all at Henderson Reservoir.
ARSA also faces a potential 5-year notice of termination by Ione, and paying Ione for treatment, both of which “could happen any time.” The city must also “complete and adopt wastewater treatment plant and ARSA master plans within 12 months” of conclusion of litigation centered on the Gold Rush Ranch and Golf Resort project. Gold Rush also must get a contract for planned improvements within two years of that, and get construction of the master planned improvements within four years.
Policy decisions were multiple in Peters’ flow chart, including several questions, such as: “Should ARSA system be abandoned due to looming costs?” Also: “Should the city plan for gold Rush development directly and as currently entitled?” and “Should the city commit to and plan for participation in a future Martell-area regional tertiary plant?”
Potential issues included whether the city should be part of an Ione regional plant, or a long-term option expecting that “tertiary treatment will eventually become mandatory.”
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
