LAFCO Executive Director Roseanne Chamberlain brought the PowerPoint presentation of the recent Municipal Services Review to the Amador Water Agency Board of Directors meeting last Thursday morning.

Agency directors were interested in those portions of the MSR that related to water and the many entities in the county dealing with water and wastewater.

Chamberlain told the board that some of the county service areas listed in the MSR have been effectively, but not actually, dissolved. A strong example is CSA 4, Martell Drainage.

Mention was made of the ongoing conflict between the AWA and the city of Jackson over water service to the proposed Wicklow Way subdivision. Friction between Jackson and the AWA was referenced again later in the meeting, which may be resolved in a proposed meeting of the Jackson City Council and the AWA Board of Directors at a later date.

Although preparation of a Municipal Services Review is mandated by the Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Local Government Reorganization Act, it appears that individual agencies are not legally required to respond to all the inquiries. One water-related omission in the MSR is the number of customers served by the Sutter Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Chamberlain praised the agencies and entities included in the review. "Everyone in the county," she told the directors, "is anxious to learn what they have to do and how to do it. People are willing to be transparent and to communicate. The hard problems will be solved."

On the meeting's short agenda was discussion and possible approval of agency staff request to send a letter of support to the State Water Resources Control Board's for its proposed Small Community Wastewater Strategy. AWA has been working with the Regional Council of Rural Counties on input for this document. A number of recommendations from the agency have been incorporated in the strategy.

The agency recommended inclusion of an affordability index when the state is considering granting monies to small communities, so they can comply with federal and state mandated clean water regulations. This would make it possible to set sewer rates as a percentage of the median income of a community.

What may be of particular value to small wastewater systems in Amador County is the change in strategy allowing grants of $2 million per community, rather than per project. This will make larger scale regional solutions to wastewater problems feasible.

Communities near each other may be granted sufficient funding to create wastewater treatment facilities with capabilities available only at more costly levels, through cooperative projects. Mentioned at the meeting were communities in the Lake Camanche area that could benefit from combined grant requests.

With some local wastewater systems costing their customers more than $90 per month, the agency is hopeful that funding from Small Communities Wastewater Grants will help support necessary improvements.

"State regulations are killing the goose that lays the golden egg - the ratepayer," said Amador Water Agency Director Paul Scott. "Someone has to step up and tell them to put the brakes on."

Lamenting the absence of beneficial laws, Abercrombie said, "Getting money from the state is second best. Better would have been involvement in the legislative process 10 or 15 years ago."

In their reports, director Scott and GM Abercrombie spoke of attendance at the recent meeting of the Association of California Water Agencies, citing the promising direction they both sensed while there.

"It's going in the right direction," Scott said, referring to their shared feeling that more help is on the way for smaller agencies.

"Beneficial use is the big thing right now," Scott added. Beneficial uses include domestic, municipal, agricultural and industrial supply; power generation; recreation: aesthetic enjoyment; navigation; and preservation and enhancement of fish, wildlife, and other aquatic resources or preserves. Twenty-eight beneficial uses have been defined by the state and regional boards.

California's population continues to grow and precipitation remains unpredictable. Complex battles over water rights and beneficial use are likely to be waged in the very near future.

Abercrombie chimed in with, "We were in litigation with EBMUD for years. Now we work in cooperation."