With millions of gallons gushing from the twin outlets of the 8.5-mile Amador Transmission Pipeline into the raw water storage reservoir adjacent to their headquarters, the Amador Water Agency Board of Directors met Thursday to discuss future plans for treatment and delivery of the water to their customers.

Two years ago, the agency purchased the 43-acre parcel of land known as the Gardella property, which lies west of agency headquarters, filling the space between them and the Westover Field in Martell.

The northern 13 acres of the Gardella property, fronting on Ridge Road, are zoned commercial, offering the agency options for use. Early plans would have placed a new water treatment plant, a new central administration building and parking in the commercial area. Further thought has led to the possibility of developing the acreage into saleable commercial parcels. Agency directors reached consensus on continuing to pursue creation of plans to construct the proposed treatment plant on the non-commercial area south of the commercial acreage. Also under consideration is construction of two 4 million gallon treated water storage tanks somewhere on agency property, combining with the existing Tanner Reservoir clearwell to provide storage for 10 million gallons of treated water. Exact locations are still a matter of conjecture.

Agency plans for projects in Amador County pale by comparison with the plans outlined in the East Bay Municipal Utility District 2040 Water Supply Management Program that was discussed at the meeting. Faced with ever-increasing water demand and fears of diminishing precipitation, EBMUD has been developing alternative sources and strategies. As entwined as Amador County is with the utility district, AWA staff deemed it essential to offer agency support to EBMUD in its tentative plans to participate in raising the levels of Lower Bear and Pardee reservoirs, as well as the project known as Inter-Regional Conjunctive Use Project.

IRCUP is a conceptual project linking the counties of Amador, Calaveras and San Joaquin with EBMUD in an expandable water storage and exchange program that could provide water supply sustainability and reliability benefits to all participants.

Cost estimates for raising Lower Bear are in the neighborhood of $44 million, raising Pardee is $340 million, and IRCUP could rise as high as $635 million, depending upon directional decisions. Mention is made in the 2040 program of the Freeport regional water project, which is under construction. The FRWP will be capable of delivering 100 million gallons per day from the Sacramento River to EBMUD. No mention was made of the price tag on this project. AWA General Manager Jim Abercrombie is confident that the cost of raising Lower Bear could be paid by future power generation.