The Amador Water Agency has proposed a regional reclaimed water distribution system for Amador County, which is outlined in this map.

Photo by: Courtesy to the Ledger Dispatch

While the water wars are heating up, there are glimmers of a new harmony among formerly contentious local wastewater planners.

The Amador Water Agency Board of Directors on Thursday gave their nod of approval to staff pursuit of deeper cooperation with cities on wastewater issues. The Purple Pipe Plan that AWA Manager of Engineering and Planning Gene Mancebo presented to the directors could provide the means to increased interaction among formerly feuding entities.

The plan is to tie much of the county's existing wastewater infrastructure together and add whatever facilities and pipelines are needed to create a system that will deliver recycled water to replace raw or treated water, the use of which is considered wasteful by state officials.

The purpose of the plan is trifold: water conservation, as demanded by the state and the arid circumstances; increased availability of treated water; and a possible increase in the county's Mokelumne River water rights.

Until recently, the agency has been on a mission aimed at creation of a regional wastewater treatment plant, situated somewhere in the Martell triangle or slightly downhill from it. The regional plant was envisioned as a place to treat wastewater from Jackson, Martell, Sutter Creek and, perhaps, areas to the east, toward Pine Grove. "We couldn't convince the cities that it was the best idea to have a regional plant," admitted AWA General Manager Jim Abercrombie.

Agency plans in that direction were stymied by Sutter Creek's steadfast focus on upgrades to its own plant, with future plans to thoroughly modernize and become what's known as a Title 22 Tertiary wastewater treatment plant, an appellation that demands some explanation.

Sections 60301 through 60355 of Title 22 of the California Code of Regulations contain the criteria for use of recycled water. Wastewater that comes into a treatment plant can be cleaned to standards specified in these regulations that will make it usable in ways that would otherwise be considered unacceptable for human contact.

Sutter Creek wastewater presently is treated only to a secondary level at the plant in the city, then to a tertiary level at a plant in Ione, where it becomes usable as irrigation water for the verdant Castle Oaks Golf Course.

To some extent, the planned upgrade to tertiary treatment is due to the arrival on the scene of the Gold Rush Ranch and Golf Resort. The Gold Rush developers were invited by the city to participate in a cooperative plan to construct and use a golf course as a spray field for the city's treated effluent. As things stand right now, the Gold Rush project is expected to produce far more effluent than can be absorbed as irrigation for the golf course.

On Thursday, Mancebo asked the agency directors, "Do we want to run our own wastewater treatment plant or are we comfortable with having Jackson and Sutter Creek operate their plants?"

Jackson's role in the purple pipe plan is a topic farther into the future than the cooperative efforts between Sutter Creek and the AWA, which are already immersed in sharing the treatment capacity of the Sutter Creek plant. By terms of a contract between the agency and the city, effluent from the northwestern edge of Jackson, the unincorporated area containing the commercial area down Highway 88 to Wal-Mart, the county airport area and all of Martell is pumped to Sutter Creek for treatment.

One recent step toward a higher level of partnership between the city and the agency will raise the daily capacity from 360,000 gallons per day to 480,000 gpd. This increase was essential to fulfill contractual obligations and the cost is being shared with the AWA.

Added capacity will accommodate planned growth in Martell, as well as contingent needs of the Wicklow Way subdivision and a possible new jail near the county Health and Human Services Building.

The regional plant that isn't going to happen would have cost an estimated $40 million. "I think this is the right way to go," said AWA Director Paul Scott, "rather than spending tens of millions of dollars. You've got Sutter Creek spending millions on upgrading their operation."

Whether Sutter Creek will be spending millions of dollars remains to be seen. Armed with the new map and amicable intentions, AWA officials have scheduled a meeting next week with their Sutter Creek counterparts, to begin hammering out some details. It is expected that cooperation on any plan will include a sharing of financial commitments.

As steps toward regionalization and cooperation develop, opportunities may arise for grant funding from larger entities. "All you're asking for is permission to go and talk to the others," said AWA Director Madonna Wiebold. "Isn't money more available when you're dealing with regional?"

In 2000, voters approved Proposition 13, the Safe Drinking Water, Clean Water, Watershed Protection, and Flood Protection Act. In 2002, the East Bay Municipal Utilities District was granted $4.4 million in Prop. 13 funds to construct a water recycling plant in the East Bay that replaces approximately 787 acre-feet of potable water per year.