Amador Water Agency
The Agency's New Website is being updated during the next several months beginning in December, 2011
*Information and rate schedule may not be accurate.
Following the California Gold Rush, pioneer entrepreneurs built canals and reservoirs designed to move Mokelumne River water from the Sierras to the Amador mines to power their stamp mills. Those canals became the foundation of water service in Amador County.
In 1959, the Amador County Water Agency was formed as a public non-profit special district by the California Legislature and ratified by the voters of Amador County for the purpose of providing water, wastewater and storm drain services to Amador County.
In 1985 the Agency purchased the Amador Water System from Pacific Gas & Electric. Several more water and wastewater improvement districts have since elected to become part of the Agency.
In 1995, the Agency changed its name to the Amador Water Agency, to more clearly demonstrate that it operates independently from Amador County government.
Serving approximately 10,000 customers in Amador County today, the Agency is the primary provider of drinking water. In addition to residents and businesses in unincorporated areas, the Agency sells water to the cities of Ione, Jackson, Plymouth, Sutter Creek, Amador City and several special districts.
The Amador Water Agency is one of the major employers in Amador County and currently employs a work force of about 46 who are challenged to meet the growing service demands of a diverse county of 568 square miles, ranging in elevation from 200 to 9000 feet and including 5 cities and several unincorporated communities.
The Amador Water Agency owns and operates 11 small community wastewater systems.
Over the 50 years since its formation, the Amador Water Agency purchased the Amador Canal System from PG&E, in 1978 constructed the Central Amador Water Project and the Buckhorn Water Treatment Plant to provide water to hundreds of upcountry residents, updated the Tanner Water Treatment Plant, built the Ione Pipeline and a new water treatment plant and storage tanks in Ione, now provides treated water to Jackson, added new wells to the Lake Camanche Village and La Mel Heights systems, operates 10 small community water systems, completed the 9-mile-long Amador Transmission Pipeline and has completed the Plymouth Pipeline.
The Agency must be ready and able to respond to the water and wastewater requirements to support land use decisions made by city and county governments of Amador County.
Amador County lies between the Cosumnes river on the north, and the Mokelumne river on the south. Two streams originating in the Sierra Nevada mountains, flow westerly, gradually diverging from each other creating a triangle shape with its apex in the mountains and the base towards the San Joaquin Valley. Amador County is a diverse county of 568 square miles, ranging in elevation from 200 to 9000 feet. The terrain varies from dry valleys to dense, high Alpine forest, demanding a variety of water needs.