Results Show Relief for the Short Term But Long Term Problems Remain
PHOTO ATTACHED:
AWA crews work to complete a new 18” pipe that connects the Tanner Water Treatment Plant to the
plant’s treated water storage tank, relieving a bottleneck in the system that had been slowing the
plant’s ability to refill the tank.
For immediate release: 9/19/2023
Contact: Larry McKenney, AWA General Manager, 209-223-3018
(Sutter Creek) Amador Water Agency Directors were updated at Thursday’s regular board meeting on recent improvements to AWA’s Tanner Water Treatment Plant on Ridge Road and the outlook for meeting the county’s demand for treated water in a major portion of its service area.
Follow-up analysis of the Tanner treatment plant in Sutter Creek shows that two projects – upgrading the plants electronic controls system and replacing a bottleneck in the piping between the treatment plant and treated water storage tank — improved the plant’s maximum capacity to supply treated water to the lower elevations of the county including Jackson, Sutter Creek, Amador City, Drytown, and Plymouth.
While the improvement is not adequate as a long-term solution, it does allow the Agency to allocate capacity to several development projects that have been waiting. AWA also prioritized agreeing to provide service to the County’s No Place Like Home project in Sutter Creek. New developments like this have been on hold for the past three years due to limited capacity. During summer months the Tanner treatment plant has been regularly running at maximum capacity with no back-up in case of emergency and with only minimal on-site storage.
“Replacing the feedline and upgrading the operating controls has given us some breathing room for the near term,” said AWA General Manager Larry McKenney. “We’ll be meeting with city managers to review their development plan priorities and assess their near-term demand for water hook-ups. In the meantime, we are continuing to accept individual single-family home connections.”
Longer term, the Water Agency still needs to address water treatment capacity in the area served by the Tanner treatment plant and in Ione, which is served by a separate plant. The Agency’s board has given these needs a high priority on a lengthy list of other water and wastewater system needs identified by recent studies. AWA also completed a storage tank project this year that quadrupled the storage in a large portion of its upcountry system.
AWA also replaced the filter media at the Tanner plant this year. The Agency invested about $1 million in Tanner improvements this year. AWA engineers are planning another project to repair and improve the Tanner plant’s internal flow controls. This will cost almost $6 million and will increase the plant’s capacity by about 20 percent. The Agency is pursuing financing for that project as early as next year.
In Ione, the Water Agency invested about $800,000 this year to replace the aged cover of the treated water storage tank at the plant. But there are few opportunities for rapid improvement of the Ione treatment plant’s capacity, which also runs at maximum capacity in the summer. The Agency is working with engineering consultants to evaluate options for a major project to increase treatment capacity in Ione.
###
