Amador County – The Amador Water Agency hosted a brainstorming session on possible alternatives for the Central Amador Water Project on Monday, with about 40 people attending. Staff gave presentations, starting with Interim General Manger Gene Mancebo, who said they will look at suggestions and try to get the best overall project solution. He said the main question was “why do we need to improve or replace the raw water conveyance system” for Central Amador. He said the pump system operates with 18 percent of its budget going to electricity, and power costs would increase, with those costs passed on to the customers. He said CAWP has “a much greater electricity cost than other systems” in AWA. It is also vulnerable to power failures, which can cause rationing in the system. In long outages “there is little or no fire protection.” Acting Engineering Manager Erik Christeson said the Buckhorn plant would be unaffected by power loss, in a storm or fire, because it has generators, but the distribution capability is minimally affected, as the majority of the system distributes by gravity from the main storage Tank “A.” Christeson said fire would not impair water delivery by the GSL, unlike a fire taking out power to the pumps. Supervisor Ted Novelli asked how the system would handle a week of 100-degree weather, followed by a fire. Operations Manger Chris McKeage said Buckhorn normally has a 6-hour down time, but would have to be run at 100 percent capacity around the clock to keep flows ready for fire fighting. The system has 20 storage tanks, a total capacity of 2.5 million gallons and serves 4,000 customers. Its largest storage vessel, Tank “A,” has a 500,000-gallon capacity. Dave Wardall, a former fire investigator, said “a major fire would put a lot of people at risk,” and he saw “a potential for a catastrophe.” Christeson said the pump system in CAWP had 18 hours of electrical and communications down time Friday, and staff worked 7 hours of overtime on it Saturday. He said they buy parts on eBay from people selling items from their old systems. Christeson said the 2004 Power Fire left Tank “A” with a foot of water in 2004, and the “El Nino” storm season in 1996 took the Tank “A” water level to 6 inches. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Wednesday, 03 February 2010 17:00
CAWP Called Fire Hazard in Summer
Amador County – The Amador Water Agency hosted a brainstorming session on possible alternatives for the Central Amador Water Project on Monday, with about 40 people attending. Staff gave presentations, starting with Interim General Manger Gene Mancebo, who said they will look at suggestions and try to get the best overall project solution. He said the main question was “why do we need to improve or replace the raw water conveyance system” for Central Amador. He said the pump system operates with 18 percent of its budget going to electricity, and power costs would increase, with those costs passed on to the customers. He said CAWP has “a much greater electricity cost than other systems” in AWA. It is also vulnerable to power failures, which can cause rationing in the system. In long outages “there is little or no fire protection.” Acting Engineering Manager Erik Christeson said the Buckhorn plant would be unaffected by power loss, in a storm or fire, because it has generators, but the distribution capability is minimally affected, as the majority of the system distributes by gravity from the main storage Tank “A.” Christeson said fire would not impair water delivery by the GSL, unlike a fire taking out power to the pumps. Supervisor Ted Novelli asked how the system would handle a week of 100-degree weather, followed by a fire. Operations Manger Chris McKeage said Buckhorn normally has a 6-hour down time, but would have to be run at 100 percent capacity around the clock to keep flows ready for fire fighting. The system has 20 storage tanks, a total capacity of 2.5 million gallons and serves 4,000 customers. Its largest storage vessel, Tank “A,” has a 500,000-gallon capacity. Dave Wardall, a former fire investigator, said “a major fire would put a lot of people at risk,” and he saw “a potential for a catastrophe.” Christeson said the pump system in CAWP had 18 hours of electrical and communications down time Friday, and staff worked 7 hours of overtime on it Saturday. He said they buy parts on eBay from people selling items from their old systems. Christeson said the 2004 Power Fire left Tank “A” with a foot of water in 2004, and the “El Nino” storm season in 1996 took the Tank “A” water level to 6 inches. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Latest from
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