Amador County – Local residents who suffered from storm-related power outages during recent winter storms may be eligible for compensation from PG&E. The payments are part of PG&E’s Saftey Net program. Thousands of PG&E customers in the foothills area were left without power for extended periods of up to 72 hours last week while repairman scrambled to bring them back on line. According to PG&E’s website, residential customers without power due for at least 48 hours due to severe storm conditions may qualify for…the automatic payment of $25-$100, which is paid about 60 days following the storm outage. “While our crews and emergency response teams at PG&E do everything they can to keep the lights on, there are rare occasions when Mother Nature impacts our ability to keep power flowing to every one of our customers,” says PG&E. The site says “over 18,000 men and women are focused on providing our customers with responsive service at fair prices.” To be eligible for the payment, one must be a residential customer or enrolled in programs such as CARE and medical baseline, and the outage must have occurred during a major weather-related event that caused significant damage to PG&E's electric distribution system. PG&E said the payments will not be issued to customers in areas where access to PG&E's electric facilities was blocked by mudslides, road closures or other access issues. The “Storm Inconvenience Payments” are in $25 increments depending on how long your power outage lasted. The maximum payment is $100. Customers will multiple residential services are eligible for payments at each location. For more information, vist PG&E’s website or call the outtage hotline at 1-888-PGE-4PGE or 1-888-743-4743 to speak with a representative. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – Members of the Sierra Nevada Conservancy last week toured the Buena Vista Biomass Power plant near Ione with Assemblywoman Alyson Huber. Sierra Nevada Conservancy Assistant Executive Director Joan Keegan and Area Representative Brandon Sanders took Huber Thursday morning through the plant, near Ione, which the conservancy said will help manage forests. They met with Buena Vista Biomass Power’s lead engineer, Jim Williams, and Fred Tornatore of TSS Consulting. Sanders said they would show Huber around the operations there, where Sierra Nevada Conservancy is working toward supplying fuels through its national forest management programs. Aide Jennifer Wonnacott said Huber toured the facility, and a few months ago wrote a letter of support for the facility to the Amador County Board of Supervisors. Huber in the letter said she was “thrilled at the prospect of the biomass plant and its ability to create good jobs in an area that needs them so badly.” The plant’s partners say it will create about 100 jobs in the “greater Amador County region.” Huber said the “project will provide a real economic benefit to the county, as well as support the state’s renewable energy goals.” The conservancy will supply slash piles from forest management trimmings, which will be incinerated for power generation while ridding the region’s forests of fire risk. Keegan said the project has a “really good synergy,” in removing forest fuels to generate power and also improve forest management. Sanders said Sierra Nevada Conservancy is “the only defined resource for this 25 million-acre area.” Publicist Christina Vanskike in a release said Sierra Nevada Conservancy “was created with the understanding that the environmental, economic and social well-being of the Sierra Nevada and its communities are closely linked and that the region would benefit from an organization providing strategic direction.” SNC’s goals include reducing “risk of natural disasters, such as wildfire,” and assisting the regional economy. Buena Vista Biomass Power plans to have commercial operation by the middle of 2010. The 18-megawatt plant would burn only woody, “renewable” biomass, such as forest, agriculture, and “clean construction” wastes. Its partners say it offers a “clean outlet for hazardous fuel removal form vulnerable forestry lands.” It would provide “renewable energy” for more than 16,000 homes and improve air quality by helping reduce open-air burning in both cities and forests. Sanders said Buena Vista Biomass Power has already secured an agreement to sell its electrical power. It has received permits from Amador County and is still working on permits with the Amador County Air Pollution Control District. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – Members of the Sierra Nevada Conservancy last week toured the Buena Vista Biomass Power plant near Ione with Assemblywoman Alyson Huber. Sierra Nevada Conservancy Assistant Executive Director Joan Keegan and Area Representative Brandon Sanders took Huber Thursday morning through the plant, near Ione, which the conservancy said will help manage forests. They met with Buena Vista Biomass Power’s lead engineer, Jim Williams, and Fred Tornatore of TSS Consulting. Sanders said they would show Huber around the operations there, where Sierra Nevada Conservancy is working toward supplying fuels through its national forest management programs. Aide Jennifer Wonnacott said Huber toured the facility, and a few months ago wrote a letter of support for the facility to the Amador County Board of Supervisors. Huber in the letter said she was “thrilled at the prospect of the biomass plant and its ability to create good jobs in an area that needs them so badly.” The plant’s partners say it will create about 100 jobs in the “greater Amador County region.” Huber said the “project will provide a real economic benefit to the county, as well as support the state’s renewable energy goals.” The conservancy will supply slash piles from forest management trimmings, which will be incinerated for power generation while ridding the region’s forests of fire risk. Keegan said the project has a “really good synergy,” in removing forest fuels to generate power and also improve forest management. Sanders said Sierra Nevada Conservancy is “the only defined resource for this 25 million-acre area.” Publicist Christina Vanskike in a release said Sierra Nevada Conservancy “was created with the understanding that the environmental, economic and social well-being of the Sierra Nevada and its communities are closely linked and that the region would benefit from an organization providing strategic direction.” SNC’s goals include reducing “risk of natural disasters, such as wildfire,” and assisting the regional economy. Buena Vista Biomass Power plans to have commercial operation by the middle of 2010. The 18-megawatt plant would burn only woody, “renewable” biomass, such as forest, agriculture, and “clean construction” wastes. Its partners say it offers a “clean outlet for hazardous fuel removal form vulnerable forestry lands.” It would provide “renewable energy” for more than 16,000 homes and improve air quality by helping reduce open-air burning in both cities and forests. Sanders said Buena Vista Biomass Power has already secured an agreement to sell its electrical power. It has received permits from Amador County and is still working on permits with the Amador County Air Pollution Control District. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – Local residents who suffered from storm-related power outages during recent winter storms may be eligible for compensation from PG&E. The payments are part of PG&E’s Saftey Net program. Thousands of PG&E customers in the foothills area were left without power for extended periods of up to 72 hours last week while repairman scrambled to bring them back on line. According to PG&E’s website, residential customers without power due for at least 48 hours due to severe storm conditions may qualify for…the automatic payment of $25-$100, which is paid about 60 days following the storm outage. “While our crews and emergency response teams at PG&E do everything they can to keep the lights on, there are rare occasions when Mother Nature impacts our ability to keep power flowing to every one of our customers,” says PG&E. The site says “over 18,000 men and women are focused on providing our customers with responsive service at fair prices.” To be eligible for the payment, one must be a residential customer or enrolled in programs such as CARE and medical baseline, and the outage must have occurred during a major weather-related event that caused significant damage to PG&E's electric distribution system. PG&E said the payments will not be issued to customers in areas where access to PG&E's electric facilities was blocked by mudslides, road closures or other access issues. The “Storm Inconvenience Payments” are in $25 increments depending on how long your power outage lasted. The maximum payment is $100. Customers will multiple residential services are eligible for payments at each location. For more information, vist PG&E’s website or call the outtage hotline at 1-888-PGE-4PGE or 1-888-743-4743 to speak with a representative. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – The Ione City Council finalized its Wastewater Master Plan last week with a public hearing, setting the path for a new tertiary sewage plant at the site of its current system. The council certified its Environmental Impact Report in a final step in the California Environmental Quality Act process, and set in place the “Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program.” Consultant Bob Godwin of Lee & Ro told the city council that there were “very few changes” between the Draft EIR and the Final EIR. Changes included corrected terminology, and corrections in the project’s description. Godwin said the conclusion in the Draft EIR was that impacts can be mitigated, in measures defined for all potentially significant impacts. The conclusion also said the “project mitigation will have a less than significant effect on the environment.” It also found that the “proposed action is the best alternative” for meeting all of the project’s objectives. Godwin said the Final EIR responded to public comment about the master plan, and addressed hydrology and water quality, including groundwater, manganese and iron concentrations, and flooding. He said the Final EIR also eliminated an “option to partially line Ponds 5 and 6,” and would instead only partially fill those ponds. It also eliminated “chemical wastewater treatment” at the plant, in favor of Ultra-Violet light disinfection only. City Manager Kim Kerr said the UV treatment would be contained within a structure, instead of the current open pond system used at the plant. Plans will remove 4 ponds and add a percolation pond, and partially fill Ponds 5 and 6, to further separate them from the “actual Sutter Creek.” Godwin said filling the ponds was the recommend by the state Regional Water Quality Control Board. City Attorney Kristen Castanos said the “board can only require qualities,” it cannot tell the city what type of facility to build, and cannot order a pond filled, but only recommend actions. Councilman David Plank asked if the percolation pond was a short-term or long-term solution. Kerr said the pond is a percolation area, which evaporates effluent as a means of disposal, and it would be considered “long-term.” Godwin said the “purpose of the percolation ponds is to have a system the city can entirely operate.” With it, the “city will have an ability to have a fallback,” if avenues of disposal dry up. He said “most users of reclaimed water want it seasonally,” for summertime and watering time. Godwin said the plant seeks permitting for a treatment capacity of 1.6 million gallons a day, and it will have a disposal capacity of half that total, at 800,000 gallons a day. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – Amador County currently has the largest negative discrepeancy in home sale prices for November in the Sacramento region, according to recent statistics from MDA Dataquick. The statistical tracking company said there were 44 sales in November at a median price of $176,000, down 21.1 percent from the same time last year. The second closest figure came from El Dorado County, where the average price of $289,000 is 13.7 percent lower than a year earlier. Amador County is also fifth on the list as far as home prices. Sacramento was the only county in the eight-county region where median home prices have climbed, but that number is still 4.9 percent lower than one year ago. Altogether, 3,183 homes changed hands in November in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties, said DataQuick. Builders closed on 341 escrows, accounting for 10.7 percent of closings in the region. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – The USDA Forest Service announced Thursday that the seasonal closure of Eldorado National Forest dirt roads and trails to wheeled motorized vehicles will begin January 1, 2010. April 1 will be the earliest reopening date. “I will officially close the dirt routes on January 1,” said Eldorado National Forest Supervisor Ramiro Villalvazo. “These roads and trails are closed seasonally to protect water quality, reduce rutting and erosion, and to prevent damage to road drainage structures, such as water bars.” Villalvazo said last spring the closed routes dried out enough to be reopened on April 16. The seasonally closed routes are identified on a free-of-charge “Motor Vehicle Use Map” available at all Eldorado National Forest offices. More than 600 miles of surfaced roads in the Eldorado National Forest are not affected by this closure. “Regardless of roads and trails being closed, route conditions vary across the Forest,” said Villalvazo. “Visitors need to keep in mind that they will be held responsible for resource damage caused by their vehicles.” The seasonal closure does not affect the roads and trails in the Rock Creek Recreational Trails Area near Georgetown. The Rock Creek Area has its own wet weather closure process that’s been in place since 1999. Information about Rock Creek Area closures is available on the Eldorado National Forest website: www.fs.fed.us/r5/eldorado. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.