Amador County – The Amador Water Agency board of directors today were expected to discuss a draft comment letter on the California Water Plan. AWA General Manager Jim Abercrombie prepared the letter, which is due to the state by June 5th. The California Department of Water Resources updates the Water Plan every 5 years, and the last update included a section dedicated to the “Mountain Counties Region.” The state has prepared a draft plan and is soliciting comments for inclusion in the plan. Abercrombie reviewed it and said he prepared the draft comments, focusing on the Mountain Counties section. The draft, addressed to Paul Dabbs, of the Strategic Water Planning division, commented on 6 areas in the Mountain Counties chapter. Regarding water supplies, the letter told of AWA’s 2006 completion of the $22 million dollar, 9-mile long Amador Transmission Pipeline, which replaced the Amador Canal. Abercrombie in the letter said: “The old canal lost 40 to 50 percent of the water along the 23-mile canal through leakage and seepage,” and it “faced serious water quality degradation along its route and was susceptible to outages and landslides.” He said the new pipeline “has been operational for 2 years and the project objectives of increased water delivery efficiency, and conservation, water quality preservation, improved reliability have been met and exceeded.” Abercrombie said the agency “will eventually abandon the canal.” The transmission pipeline was also mentioned as a “recent accomplishment.” Elsewhere, regarding a water rights, Abercrombie asked the state to “strengthen (the) area of origin discussion and protection.” On “storage,” Abercrombie said AWA is studying the expansions of Lower Bear River Reservoir with regional partners: Calaveras County Water Agency, the East Bay Municipal Utility District, and San Joaquin County “to provide an additional 26,000 acre feet for water supply.” He listed those partners in another development, the “lnterregional Conjunctive Use Project,” looking at reservoir storage at Lower Bear, Pardee or Duck Creek (or all 3), using San Joaquin’s ground water basin for storage, and addressing “critical overdraft needs of the valley.” Abercrombie said the agency is also “developing a Regional Recycling Master Plan” between AWA, Jackson, Sutter Creek, lone, Plymouth, and Amador County with a goal to reuse 20 percent of the water supply by 2020. The agency is also developing conservation and additional surface water supplies. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.