Amador County – Sutter Creek City Council on Monday discussed a 5-year notice of termination of a wastewater disposal agreement between the city and Ione.

Ione City Council notified the Amador Regional Sanitation Authority and California Department of Corrections in an Aug. 5 letter from Ione City Attorney James D. Maynard saying that Ione “gives formal notice” that “it is providing ARSA and the CDCR with a five-year notice to terminate all flows to the city of Ione’s (Wastewater Treatment Plant).”

Maynard in the letter said Ione expects ARSA and CDCR to “move promptly to terminate the flow of effluent” to the Castle Oaks Water Reclamation Plant, by “Aug. 31, 2016.” The notice cited terms of a 2007 agreement between the three entities.

Maynard said Ione “must begin the design and construction of a new tertiary wastewater treatment plant as soon as possible to comply with the terms” of a state Cease & Desist Order. “As part of that design, the city has been forced to reevaluate the viability of continued flows” to the Castle Oaks plant and to Ione from ARSA and CDCR.

Also Monday, the Sutter Creek City Council discussed and approved a request for proposals for a Wastewater Master Plan, as the city prepares for the developers of Gold Rush Ranch & Golf Resort to build the city a new wastewater treatment plant. Gold Rush must build the new plant within 2 years of adjudication of an environmental lawsuit against Gold Rush, which is expected to conclude by the end of this calendar year.

City Manager Sean Rabe said the ARSA board has not yet responded to Ione’s letter, and “it will be on their agenda for next week’s meeting. The Council discussed it at the meeting and obviously has concerns about the notification.”

Rabe said: “One of the biggest issues is the timing because of our Master Plan updates not coinciding with the timeframes that Ione needs to stick to.” He said for example that if either ARSA or Sutter Creek want to “participate in a regional plant we need to tell them that before March so that the ARSA flows can be accommodated in the design of the plant.”

He said: “We may not have that decision made by then – whether or not ARSA and Sutter Creek decides to participate in a regional plant or decides to build new storage and disposal on its own. The Master Plan updates will lead the ARSA Board and the City to that decision.”

Ione Councilman Daniel Epperson, who sits on its wastewater committee, said negotiations continue with PERC Water, on a design, build, finance and operate agreement for the Ione plant, which a state timeline wants fully built by September 2013.

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