Rob Williams of HDR reiterated that at the meeting held October 25th 3 Regional Treatment Alternatives emerged. Those included a Regional Plant in the Martell Area, a Regional Plant in the Sutter Creek area or Sub-Regional Plants in both Martell and Sutter Creek. He then presented the conclusions from the December 4th meeting. It was determined at that meeting that present worth costs are similar for all the treatment options mentioned above.

Also, discussed was that projected wastewater flows will exceed the Sutter Creek Plant’s capacity within a few years, even with expansion. However it was determined that the expansion of the plant is key to wastewater issue resolution in the short term as the expansion of the plant can be achieved more quickly and be on line nearly a full two years before a new Regional Plant. The life expectancy of the existing Sutter Creek Plant is probably less than 10 years, if even that said, Rob Williams. A Technical Memorandum has also been developed outlining the capacity of the existing Sutter Creek Plant. Williams then proceeded to go over the approximate current flows to the Sutter Creek plant which totaled 327,000 gallons per day. According to data gathered 274,200 of those gallons are from Sutter Creek, 22,000 from Amador City and the remaining 53,800 from the Martell Area.

The Sutter Creek Plant is permitted for 480,000 gallons per day but preliminary data indicates that the city may not be able to meet state required testing levels even 80,000 gallons below that capacity at 400,000 gallons. ARSA and Sutter Creek City Manager Rob Duke explained that based upon HDR’s research the plant may not be able to meet testing standards above 400,000 gallons a day. According to HDR the estimated short-term capacity is 172,000 gallons per day for current conditional will serves, requested conditional will serves and the future requests for the next 5 years, pushing the existing Sutter Creek Plant beyond even their permitted capacity.  “We have used about 10,000 gallons per day (extra) a year since I have been here. If that holds steady, we have another 7 years of growth ahead, however there are more projects applied for than that amount suggests,” states Duke. Expanding the Sutter Creek Treatment Plant has become the most attractive alternative to short term improvements at this time. Some other short term improvements were then identified including processing and filter changes.

The most promising was adding a packaged plant, or a used plant, to the system. This could add anywhere from 20,000 to 100,000 gpd. The temporary facility would be built parallel to the existing Sutter Creek Treatment Plant and the wastewater flows would be divided between the two plants. Duke said that and packaged plant can be put into operation within 6-8 months and remain operational for as many as 20 years, however the hope is that within a few years a new regional sewer plant will be operational. In the meantime a funding mechanism must be developed for any interim capacities available. The Interim Capacity Funding discussed will be paid for by new development with the application of a surcharge to each  connection fee, which will range between $1,500 to $2,500. Also, interim capacity can be phased in to meet the need, so any monies collected for interim phases can be paid back to the developers if the phase is never implemented. The next steps towards moving to an interim solution were then discussed.

The Sutter Creek Plant treatment plant’s capacity will have to be re-evaluated based upon additional data. An estimation of capacity needs on a year to year basis, instead of a 5 year basis. Then a more detailed cost estimate of the interim treatment alternatives can be developed, as well as investigating the option of purchasing a “used” treatment plant.

Finally authorization must be obtained from governing boards in the area to move forward with the design of the interim improvement. Duke added to the list that he would like to start dialogue with developers to identify what growth is reasonable on a year to year basis and then start planning various upgrades based upon information gathered. “Some of the options to get a few thousand gallons are actually fairly cheap.  But we do not want to create an incentive for everybody to hurry up and get in first to get the cheap upgrades. We don’t want to get into a feeding frenzy,” said Duke and many of the developers present at the meeting agreed.

A meeting to discuss a long term solution is going to be held March 5th at 1:30pm at the BOS chambers. However, in the meantime information that has been developed as well as future meeting dates can be found online at the County’s website by visiting www.co.amador.ca.us and clicking on the Regional Waste Water Planning information link on the front page.