Amador County – Amador County Supervisors last week changed requirements for a grant to the Camanche water system, and Amador Water Agency, and noted that they wanted to prioritize improvements made there.

Supervisor Chairman John Plasse said Camanche has a failing system that was given to AWA by the previous Board of Supervisors. The current board is taking responsibility by granting $150,000 from the Water Development Fund. Supervisor Ted Novelli requested the grant be brought back for reconsideration so they could to place a two-year time limit on the funding.

Supervisor Louis Boitano said he preferred a year’s limit, instead of two years, because “things are in bad shape down there,” and they should start work soon, “before they have an outright failure.” He said the county “built a treatment plant that did not treat. They got it built, but it did not work.”

Mancebo said a one-year limit for spending might be too short because they have a list of things to do and he wants to stretch the money. He asked Supervisors to consider a two-year limit, after the rate increase, which was approved unanimously.

Mancebo said a $530,000 leak detection grant is close, but he did not want to say the grant was received, because it was not finalized. It goes to specific projects, and will replace about 200 service lines, and place liners on some water storage tanks. It would still leave the system with about 430 service lines needing replacement.

Mancebo said the Water Development grant would go first toward restoring water reliability of Well 14, which could cost $30,000 to $100,000 or more. The second priority is fixing hydrants, and the third is service line replacements.

After that, the system needs well booster pumps: Two of four pumps at two sites are down, and Well 8’s pumps have not functioned since AWA took over the system. He said pump reliability is an issue, and they are not energy efficient. A fifth priority is a remote alarm system and Mancebo said those projects add up to more than $150,000.

The cost of Well 14 will determine how much money is left for the rest of the work. Mancebo said the tanks liner grant is looking good, but if they fail to get it, that would become number two on the priority list. He said the system required a lot of work, which was paid with internal loans, which they try not to do anymore.

Plasse said making the list of work would be easy if money was not a factor, but it is, so they need to fix problems based on the money available.

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