The enthusiasm was palpable on Thursday morning, as the Amador Water Agency held its first meeting with the four new directors chosen last month by the voters of Amador County.

But the challenges of a growing county remain the same as well.

Amicable give and take, with consideration given to comments from the public, resulted in the election of Terry Moore, the only veteran board member, as president. The vice presidency was awarded to District 1 Director Bill Condrashoff.

In a meeting that agency employees thought set a record for length at more than 8 1/2 hours, directors had a lot to say and plenty of questions for staff. As department heads presented their reports to the board, arcane water terms and topics prompted deeper discussions and hinted at future requests for explication.

Major issues facing the new board are wastewater rates in Martell; the Plymouth Pipeline project; California tiger salamanders in the Camanche area; zero-net water regulations; lawsuits involving Ken Berry and Kenneth Perano; Berry's challenge of the Wicklow Way water supply assessment; and interpretation of water rights.

The city of Sutter Creek has issued a final report for its wastewater rates and a public hearing was held last night, too late for inclusion in this article. At last Thursday's meeting, the board directed agency staff to take the rate study done for Sutter Creek and translate it into a rate schedule for agency wastewater customers.

"There is a contract between AWA and Sutter Creek, a contract between ARSA and Ione, and a contract between Ione and Castle Oaks," AWA General Manager Jim Abercrombie explained to the directors. "The city of Sutter Creek is running in the red."

Wastewater rate consultant Bob Reed appeared before the board. "I've been working with the agency for about 10 years," Reed told them, "and I'm also working with Sutter Creek and Plymouth on rates."

Both Reed and Abercrombie referred to the possibility of creating tiered wastewater rates, differentiating between residential and commercial, with a third rate for commercial with food.

Construction may begin soon on the Plymouth pipeline, with possible signing this week of the expected contract with Mountain Cascade.

The hunt for California tiger salamanders in the Camanche wastewater project area will be fulfilling some of its required 20 rain days this week. Prior to this storm, there have been six days of rainfall with no appearance of the salamanders in the traps set to record their presence. The California Environmental Quality Act has led the agency to install fences and traps in order to test for the presence of this endangered species, which could affect agency plans for changes in the wastewater treatment near Lake Camanche.

Condrashoff introduced the topic of zero-net water. "We're talking about requiring new development to participate in the recycling project," Abercrombie said. "Some communities are implementing policies that require all new development to fund creation of recycling facilities."

Closed sessions regarding ongoing lawsuits were part of the lengthy meeting. AWA attorney Steve Kronick referred to the Berry litigation, saying, "The agency has sort of voluntarily put on hold the acquisition of rights of way (along the Amador Canal). The agency has proceeded to put in one stretch of small diameter pipeline."

Abercrombie later informed the Ledger Dispatch that a letter has been sent to the Amador County Planning Department, responding to Berry's challenge to the Wicklow Way Water Supply Assessment. "The agency still stands by the water supply assessment," Abercrombie said. "There are ways to manage the supply by conservation, storage and recycling."

"I didn't want you to go away empty-handed," Kronick quipped as he passed out huge white binders to both new and old directors. The binders contained the latest versions of the Brown Act, conflict of interest law and ethics.