Amador County – The Amador Water Agency board of directors answered public questions about water supplies, but in the end focused on the Gold Rush Ranch & Golf Resort. The result could mean later public workshops on water supply assessments. The special meeting last Tuesday began with Moore describing “a unique situation: We have no staff report and we have no staff recommendation.” Instead, he chose to start with a motion, then discussion. Engineering & Planning Manager Gene Mancebo described a new set of tables that looked at projects with submitted plans to be served by the Amador Water System, including Gold Rush. He said the agency does “not have extremely good numbers for water uses,” but they felt “400 gallons a day is pretty accurate.” Mancebo said engineers also “felt it would be a good assumption that the golf course would be required to use reclaimed water.” He said the Water Supply Assessment lists recycled water, “but the supplier of recycled water was left open in the WSA.” Marilynn Nutter of Sutter Creek asked why the water supply assessment did not include drought preparation. AWA Chairman Terence Moore said that is an important issue, but also a different issue. The WSA is about use of existing water rights. He said “our water rights are secure,” and “once we have it in the pipeline, it’s imperative that we stretch that water as far as we can.” AWA General Manager Jim Abercrombie said the WSA “must include planned projects, but not unplanned or speculative ones.” Director Debbie Dunn said the WSA was created by relatively new legislation, and suggested public education, in the form of a future WSA workshop. Dunn said the county as a whole, with the exception of the economic downturn, was looking at a series of developments. The board voted to support future education efforts, and voted 3-1 to take no further action on the Gold Rush Ranch WSA. Directors Don Cooper, Gary Thomas and Moore voted yes, Director Bill Condrashoff voted no and Dunn did not vote, saying she was undecided. Abercrombie said a water supply assessment workshop was a good idea, and the agency would also be redoing its Urban Water Management Plan, which looks at growth 25 years into the future, but not at specific projects. He said that would also be a good topic for a workshop. Story by Jim Reece This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it