Amador County – The Amador Water Agency Board of Directors approved a study of the feasibility of increasing the storage capacity at Lower Bear Lake by building up the dam. The approval in effect will simply pay for the study already approved in a consultant agreement with the URS Corporation executed in July of 2007. General Manager Jim Abercrombie said the board was simply approving the cost share agreement of the $120,000 project, to cost AWA $30,000. Board Member Don Cooper asked why there was no incentive in the agreement for a completion time-frame for the study. Abercrombie said it was left out because of other AWA construction projects and because a Pacific Gas & Electric study related to the lake would not be completed for another 3 years. He added that part of the project agreement would be about preserving AWA water rights, which staff wanted to discuss in closed session. Board Chairman Terence Moore said the study would find out if it was possible financially and physically to raise the dam at Lower Bear, and the board was only approving the study. Board Member Bill Condrashoff asked if the estimated 72 Million Kilowatt Hours for replacement of loss of water in a 4,000-foot drop of water above the dam would be more like a 5,000-foot drop. Abercrombie said the kilowatt hours were estimated with a study done in the 1990s and could be updated with more current numbers. Moore said the agreement and study were aimed at future water rights and a water rights workshop, possibly in February, would help new board members better understand the elements involved. AWA Attorney Steve Kronick said a 1975 agreement with PG&E gave the agency 2,200 acre-feet a year of water rights in Lower Bear Lake, with 3,000 acre-feet of storage paid for by AWA, 2,200 taken in yield, and the balance paid for as insurance for future needs if or when the Central Amador Water Project water supply runs out. Story by Jim Reece