Amador County – Amador Water Agency Board of Directors approved a new community outreach plan for its Gravity Supply Line, in its efforts to replace a 30-year-old Upcountry water system.

AWA General Manager Gene Mancebo said a financial reorganization concept was approved Sept. 8. He said community involvement was “critical” in the agency’s new three-part financial plan, “designed to fix the Upcountry’s aging and unreliable water system.” It should also “ensure that future development pays its fair share for water infrastructure,” and “bring the several different water rates in the Agency’s four water systems into alignment.”

The new outreach plan will explain the need for matching funds and streamline its “financial management to lower overhead costs for all ratepayers.” He said the “Gravity Supply Line would provide a more reliable flow of water to firefighters, families and businesses upcountry.”

In coming months, AWA “will be meeting with and seeking input from community residents on options for funding replacement” of the upcountry water system in the Central Amador Water Project service area, “which fails approximately 40 times every year,” he said.

District 3 Director Don Cooper said the plan is “a way forward for the Gravity Supply Line and current Upcountry water customers,” and “assurance that future development would pay a fair share of the project,” which has been approved for a $5 million federal grant.

The proposed gravity pipeline has been endorsed by the Amador Fire Chiefs Association and the Amador County Board of Supervisors for its “superior fire protection and water reliability Upcountry over the existing pumped system,” Mancebo said.

“We wish we did not have to replace the upcountry pumping system, but it’s old, vulnerable to frequent power-outages and operating beyond its design capacity much of the year,” Mancebo said. “We can’t ask families and seniors to cross their fingers each year hoping to avoid a calamity if the system fails to protect them and their property during a fire.”

Director Robert Manaserro said AWA “wants to be fair. We are not here to favor one system over another, and the status quo is very complicated and expensive to manage.”

Directors asked staff to “investigate ways to gain willing financial participation from landowners who would be future users in the CAWP service area, to help pay for the Gravity Supply Line, and in the Amador Water System, to help pay for additional water treatment plant capacity.”

The Board hired two consulting firms to bolster outreach and collaborate with community residents over the next four to six months. Mancebo said after “extensive public involvement,” the “Water Agency will decide whether to ask the public to provide matching funds for the Gravity Supply Line next year.”

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