Amador County – The Plymouth City Council at its last meeting July 14 approved a non-exclusive contract with a company to market and sell water from the Arroyo Ditch, which will go toward preserving early 1900s water rights that could be worth as much as $150 million to the city.

Vice Mayor and Councilman Jon Colburn said the agreement was kind of pro-bono work, where the company would get paid if the water sells. He said that ranchers in the area could not afford to buy into the Arroyo Ditch, which diverts water from the Cosumnes River, and which is flowing at top level now. The ditch now is serving two large customers, those being the 49er Village mobile housing facility, and the Amador County Fairgrounds.

He said the ditch is running at about 25 cubic feet per second. The pre-1914 rights are equivalent to an estimated $100 million to $150 million in value, over the lifetime of the rights, he said.

Colburn said negotiations with Shenandoah Water to operate, maintain and sell the water from the ditch fell through due to the company’s unwillingness to accept the risk involved. He said they were facing a 50 percent share of the water sales with the city, but did not want to risk the costs. The city also did not want to put itself at financial risk.

The Councilwoman Patricia Shackleton, Colburn and City Manager and Finance Director Jeff Gardner negotiated the agreement for the city, with the new, non-exclusive agreement with BAR Water Associates Incorporated, of Acampo, “for the non-exclusive right to help the city sell water form the Arroyo Ditch. Additionally BAR Water will help the city develop a plan for improving the ditch for the long term viability of supplying water to Plymouth and Amador County.”

BAR Water, according to its web posting, is made up of engineers, including principal owner Clay Rosson, who is a project manager, hydrologist and design engineer with 10 years’ consulting engineering experience.

Principal and President John Bischoff has a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering from Iowa State. He is a “water quality non-point source contamination expert and water resources engineer with 33 years in the field.”

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