What to Do With the Historic Amador Canal?
The Amador Water Agency has several options for decommissioning the Amador Canal. Their plan is to run a
pipe along the length of the canal to serve existing customers along the canal with untreated water.
AWA is not
sure if they will bury the pipe in the canal using earth from the roadway/berm, or just leave the pipe
exposed above ground, leaving the canal as it is.
The uncertainty comes from what option will have the least impact on the surrounding land. Burying the canal will change the course of runoff. Rainwater runoff that has been flowing into the canal since 1870 will no longer be diverted by the canal. Instead, the water will flow past the buried canal into areas that may have been developed over the last 140 years. This could lead to drainage problems for houses below the canal.
If the canal is not buried, rainwater will flow into it, and because of the high flows that the rain can create, the canal will need to be maintained to prevent a failure during high-flow rain events. Maintaining the canal is something AWA does not want to continue to do.
The size of the pipe is still undetermined. But it will be between 6 and 12 inches in diameter and is likely to be made of a plastic material.
Discussions are ongoing to determine the best way to decommission the canal. In August 2008, AWA released an addendum to the Amador Transmission Pipeline Final Environmental Impact Report. This addendum's purpose was to provide detail on construction activities for the smaller diameter canal pipeline, and assess any additional environmental impacts related to changes in this project. Addendum