Amador County – The Amador Joint Water Committee talked about regional wastewater in its final meeting of 2008 in late November, with the subject of wastewater reclamation becoming the latest buzzword for local collaboration. AWA General Manager Jim Abercrombie said the solution now was a regional wastewater recycling plant. Engineering Manager Gene Mancebo said the “focus is now on how we can get reclaimed water and how we can use it.” He said the objective is to minimize the impact on potential drinking water resources. He reported that the Amador Water Agency had submitted a grant application to the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, requesting 250,000 dollars for a water recycling project. He said the Sierra Nevada Conservancy seems to be very interested. Part of the project is to get the county and cities to work together and to replace drinking water with reclaimed water, to be sent on to the Jackson Valley Irrigation District for agricultural uses. The early step is to do outreach and bring parties together. Mancebo said the “Purple Pipe” program was such a project, but it was not a solution to the average residential user, as to even turn on the spigot or adjust a sprayer head of a Purple Pipe requires a licensed operator. The Purple Pipe program would pump reclaimed water around the county, but it can only benefit agencies. He said they could try to get it to serve public needs, such as irrigation at cemeteries, school grounds, parks and open areas. Abercrombie said collaboration among political entities was more important now that funding had changed. Instead of getting state funds of 2 Million Dollars per regional project, the funding now is disbursed at 2 Million Dollars per community. Local developer Krista Clem said her Golden Vale subdivision, currently in the application phase, has two ponds, at 18 and 27 acres, which could be available for storage as part of a regional water reclamation project. Joint Water Committee member, Supervisor Richard Forster asked Clem is she would “work on developers and bring them to the next meeting and see who’s willing to participate.” Clem agreed to do so. The next Amador Joint Water Committee meeting is January 19th at the AWA office. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).