Residents of Amador City, parts of Drytown and some areas of Sutter Creek are being asked to avoid all water use if possible after 9 p.m. on Wednesday, June 17 until 7 the next morning.

The Amador Water Agency will be conducting repairs and upgrades to the Sutter Creek's water distribution system. It will be necessary to interrupt water service to some customers in Sutter Creek and Drytown, and all customers in Amador City as a result of this work.

Shutting off the water main will allow the agency to replace a critical broken valve and to install a new valve to improve the city's water distribution system. The agency's construction contractor for the Plymouth Pipeline, Mountain Cascade, will take advantage of the shut-down to install a section of the Plymouth Pipeline the same night.

To minimize the effect on customers, the service interruption is planned to occur at night. Water agency representatives will deliver or mail written notice to customers who will be directly affected by the outage, but other Sutter Creek residents may experience reduced pressure or unexpected interruptions.

"Our plan is to get several critical repairs and installations accomplished during this one night of service interruption," said AWA Manager of Engineering and Planning Gene Mancebo. "We appreciate everyone's patience throughout this project and we apologize for the inconvenience."

The construction activity will be centered in downtown Sutter Creek Wednesday night. Crews and equipment will be working through the night at the intersections of Main Street and Fiefield, Eureka Street and Boston Alley, Eureka Street and Broad Street, Gopher Flat and Mill Street and outside of town on Amador Road.

"Our crews know that they will be working in residential neighborhoods where people are sleeping. However, safety regulations require we use back-up alarms on equipment and adequate lighting. Again, we apologize for the inconvenience and will do everything possible to keep nighttime disturbance to a minimum," Mancebo said.

The areas that will have water service shut off for several hours Wednesday night are portions of Sutter Creek including Crestview Estates, Sutter Crest Estates, Manor Court, the northern section of Old Highway 49 (Hanford Street), all of Amador City and parts of Drytown.

Fire hydrants in these areas will not be operational while service is interrupted but water pressure to fire hydrants in the rest of Sutter Creek should be unaffected by the outage. The water agency is coordinating this outage with the Sutter Creek Fire Department.

Any time there is a loss of water pressure, there is a potential for water contamination. After water service is restored, the water will be tested to ensure water quality standards are being met. As a precautionary measure during any outage and the following 24 hours, the agency suggests customers either boil water or use bottled water for drinking and cooking.