Amador County – The $10 Million Dollar Plymouth potable water pipeline may break ground as early as Monday (Feb. 23rd), the Amador Water Agency reported last week. AWA Engineering Manager Gene Mancebo said the contractor, Mountain Cascade, has been delivering pipe to property for the start of the project and may start excavating next week and setting pipe in the ground, weather permitting. Mancebo gave a staff report to the AWA Board of Directors last Thursday and introduced Mountain Cascade’s Tony Bautista in the audience. District 5 board member and Chairman Terence Moore asked Mancebo if the project would have two crews, working from both ends of the 6-mile, 6-segment pipeline that will link the Plymouth water storage tank on Fiddletown Road with the Tanner Water Treatment Plant on Ridge Road. Mancebo they will have to “wait and see. Right now they are starting in Plymouth and working this way.” He said in advance of laying pipe, the contractor will excavate along the route to see the need to make the digs deeper. Board Member Bill Condrashoff asked if they were fabricating pipe at the work site. Mancebo said Mountain Cascade will be using C900 pipe, which is “easy to cut in the field and to add elbows.” The company and AWA are targeting March 4th as an official groundbreaking ceremony. The original site was found to be a Catholic Cemetery, but the new site of the ceremony will be at a Winery in the Shennandoah Valley. In another report, AWA Finance director Mike Lee said AWA is planning a Martell area wastewater financial plan rate study workshop. The agency must look at a new rate to dispose of an effluent flow that has now doubled 2 years in a row. Lee said it has grown from 45,000 gallons 2 years ago to 200,000 gallons. The Martell rate workshop is set for February 26th. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.