Amador County – The Amador Water Agency on Thursday voted to send out requests for proposals for professional services with an aim to eke out more capacity and a longer life-expectancy at water treatment plants in Ione and on Sutter Hill. Engineering manager Gene Mancebo said the consultation could cost anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000 dollars, and would look at treating more water at the 2 plants. District 3 Board Member Don Cooper said the work should include “avoided costs,” or costs that are saved through conservation measures. General Manager Jim Abercrombie said that would be something staff could try to develop and bring back to the board, though he was not sure how PG&E would gauge such measurements. District 1 Board Member Bill Condrashoff said he had a problem with “asking for voluntary conservation so that new people can come in and use that water.” He said he would rather do things to increase capacity and flow. Mancebo said they could address changes to customer appliances and toilets to conserve water among agency customers. Abercrombie said the study’s scope would be to see “what we can do to increase treatment plant capacity.” Mancebo said the plant was already getting tweaked to increase capacity at Tanner water treatment plant, on Ridge Road, which was approved by the state about a month ago to increase treatment capacity from 4.5 Million Gallons a Day to 6 Million Gallons A Day, maximum. They eventually aim to push 6.3 Million Gallons a Day through Tanner. With other changes described by Operations Manager Chris McKeage, Condrashoff said it translated to serving 1,800 new homes. Mancebo said an increase in backwash must be handled and there was “still some imbalancing between the filters that has to be worked out. I’m a little reluctant to say, oh yeah,” AWA can handle the flow rate. Condrashoff said “there’s a potential that these upgrades can take us a long way.” McKeage said he agreed with Mancebo’s reluctance, and warned: “Don’t become too comfortable with riding way out on a limb there.” He said a filter going off-line could lead to flow shortages and DHS infractions. Cooper also added that “you don’t want to pay a consultant to tell you what you already know.” Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Amador County – The Amador Water Agency on Thursday voted to send out requests for proposals for professional services with an aim to eke out more capacity and a longer life-expectancy at water treatment plants in Ione and on Sutter Hill. Engineering manager Gene Mancebo said the consultation could cost anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000 dollars, and would look at treating more water at the 2 plants. District 3 Board Member Don Cooper said the work should include “avoided costs,” or costs that are saved through conservation measures. General Manager Jim Abercrombie said that would be something staff could try to develop and bring back to the board, though he was not sure how PG&E would gauge such measurements. District 1 Board Member Bill Condrashoff said he had a problem with “asking for voluntary conservation so that new people can come in and use that water.” He said he would rather do things to increase capacity and flow. Mancebo said they could address changes to customer appliances and toilets to conserve water among agency customers. Abercrombie said the study’s scope would be to see “what we can do to increase treatment plant capacity.” Mancebo said the plant was already getting tweaked to increase capacity at Tanner water treatment plant, on Ridge Road, which was approved by the state about a month ago to increase treatment capacity from 4.5 Million Gallons a Day to 6 Million Gallons A Day, maximum. They eventually aim to push 6.3 Million Gallons a Day through Tanner. With other changes described by Operations Manager Chris McKeage, Condrashoff said it translated to serving 1,800 new homes. Mancebo said an increase in backwash must be handled and there was “still some imbalancing between the filters that has to be worked out. I’m a little reluctant to say, oh yeah,” AWA can handle the flow rate. Condrashoff said “there’s a potential that these upgrades can take us a long way.” McKeage said he agreed with Mancebo’s reluctance, and warned: “Don’t become too comfortable with riding way out on a limb there.” He said a filter going off-line could lead to flow shortages and DHS infractions. Cooper also added that “you don’t want to pay a consultant to tell you what you already know.” Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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