Amador County – The Amador County Joint Water Committee heard staff reports from the Amador Water Agency Monday about local and regional water issues. Engineering Manager Gene Mancebo said the Plymouth Pipeline project has been dealing with arsenic in soils, and the AWA is working closely with the environmental health department on solutions. Mancebo said it was because of the makeup of a road base that was used on one of the roads along the alignment. He said the finding came during country road right-of-way work and it could hold up the Plymouth Pipeline project. The committee, made up of AWA President Terence Moore and Vice President Bill Condrashoff, and Amador Supervisor Chairman Ted Novelli and Supervisor John Plasse, also discussed the status of the Mokelumne River Water Forum. The East Bay Municipal Utility District board created the forum with a Memorandum of Understanding in April 2005. It includes AWA as a member, as well as 15 other entities including Alpine and Amador Counties, the Calaveras County Water District, the Jackson Valley Irrigation District and the Mokelumne River Water and Power Authority. AWA General Manager Jim Abercrombie said the forum has looked at ways to increase water to Oakland, including increasing flows on Lower Bear River, and building the “Duck Creek Project, which started as a project that would dam up the Middle Bar of the Mokelumne River.” He said the Foothill Conservancy, AWA and the CCWD protested it, “so it was modified for an off-stream reservoir project.” Abercrombie said the size of a dam for a Duck Creek Reservoir is unknown and he said the forum should “start doing some water modeling for this so we can optimize storage for future Amador County needs.” Condrashoff said the aquifer, which San Joaquin County wants to use to inject surplus water flows, is “very large and (basically) can hold every drop of the Mokelumne River.” He said he saw problems, including adding of too much water to the groundwater supply, which would create Delta saltwater to back up into freshwater aquifer areas. Mancebo said “it would be impractical to build it large enough to capture the wettest of springs.” Moore said the groundwater extends into Calaveras County’s western end, and Calaveras would benefit from an aquifer injection. Abercrombie said some southern Delta water purveyors were interested in the project as well, as “we have been talking about this for a while, but they will wait until it gets more legs.” Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.