The Cullman Times
March 06, 2008 09:58 pm
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By Brittany Woodby
BWOODBY@CULLMANTIMES.COM
While recent rainfall throughout the area is relieving some of the immediate threats of a water shortage, Cullman city and county officials are still deadlocked on finding a joint long-range water alternative to meet the area’s future drinking water demands.
The Cullman Utilities Board and the City of Cullman are still in possession of a permit to begin construction of a reservoir on the Duck River Dam. Meanwhile, the Cullman County Commission and Cullman County Water Department have rescheduled a public meeting to discuss their plan to secure an alternative water source from the Tennessee River.
“We just want to let the public be aware of what we are doing with the Tennessee River,” Cullman County Water Superintendent David Bussman said.
The meeting was originally scheduled for Feb. 11, but Bussman said the department rescheduled the presentation in order to allow Cullman City officials, who were already set to hold a city council meeting at that time, be present.
Bussman said the county’s engineer, Chris Cousins of Municipal Consultants in Birmingham, will lead the presentation and discuss different ways the county can utilize water from the Tennessee River.
“This is our alternative to the city’s Duck River project,” he said.
While city and county officials began working on finding a joint solution to the area’s diminishing water supply for more than 15 years ago, the county made the move to secure rights to draw water from the Tennessee River in 2006 by purchasing 25.79 acres of land in Morgan County along the river.
The city remained dedicated to the Duck River project.
“The Tennessee River is a long-range plan,” Bussman said. “Even with Duck River, Cullman could be out of water in the next 100 years. We’re looking way out in the future.”
Bussman said the county has handed over engineering plans for Duck River to Municipal Consultants and the engineers have prepared different ways of managing the Tennessee River to make the plans comparable.
“We have different options within the Tennessee River plan,” he said. “One is bringing the raw water to Cullman, treating it (at the city’s treatment plant) and delivering it to customers.”
Bussman said the other option is to build a treatment plant and improve infrastructure in the county.
Previously, county officials said the cost of building the 30-mile pipeline from the river, as well as a treatment plant and necessary infrastructure could reach $117 million. While neither the funding, nor plans to use the city’s existing treatment plant, have been confirmed, the county has submitted an application to the Tennessee Valley Authority to withdraw water from the river.
On its 26A application, the county asked for 30 million gallons of water a day, which is only enough water for county water customers alone. However, Bussman said the county’s intent is not to separate itself from the city, who sells water to the county at wholesale cost.
“We’ve asked the city to come in with us,” he said. “(If they choose to do so) we would just amend the permit.”
Bussman said the county decided to ask for less water than it intends to withdraw since the amount of water permissible is “changeable.”
“(Amending the permit) is the easy part,” he said. “You don’t necessarily bring a whole lot of people in on the permits in the beginning. ... Really the only way it’s going to work is if the city joins with us.”
The county has yet to receive notification from TVA about whether or not they will be permitted to withdraw water from the river. Bussman said as of Thursday the application is still under review and he expects to hear something more definite within 30 to 60 days.
However, Bussman said his biggest concern is not getting approval from TVA but getting the city to agree to pursue the project instead.
“We have discussed every option,” he said. “It’s hard to say what the best option will be without knowing whether the city is going in on this with us. That’s the problem. They are still hung up on Duck River. We need to get past that one hurdle first in order to find out what’s best for the community.”
City officials said they intend to be present at the meeting and pushed back the Cullman City Council meeting by one hour Feb. 11 in order to attend the original date of the county’s presentation.
Since then, Cullman City Council President Woody Jacobs, Cullman Mayor Donald Green and Cullman Utilities Board Chairman Wells Turner have met with Cullman County Commission Chairman Wiley Kitchens and Commissioner Wayne Willingham to further discuss the entities’ collaboration on the water problem. Jacobs said while the city is open to work with the county, it is still moving forward with Duck River.
“We’re moving forward. We have not stopped moving forward,” he said.
In December, the city and the Cullman Utilities Board filed a petition with the U.S. District Court to join as defendants in the lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the Duck River project.
The lawsuit, filed by the Alabama Rivers Alliance, Inc., is the first filed against the corps for the project since it reissued a permit to begin construction in Nov. 2006. The corps was sued for the project before and in 2003, Federal Judge Karen Bowdre repealed the corps’ Section 404 permit.
“We weren’t a party to the last lawsuit,” said Dale Greer, assistant director of the Cullman Economic Development Agency and Duck River project manager.
“This time our attorneys (Bausch and Bingham) helped put an administrative order together for us to be a party to the lawsuit. ... If it comes down to trial, our lawyers will get to speak.”
City officials said the opportunity to present the area’s need for another water source, as well the engineering reports and environmental studies done on the project, will strengthen their case to win the lawsuit.
The court granted consent for the city and the utilities board to join as defendants and in January the court issued the scheduling order for the proceedings. Attorneys for the city and utilities board met the Jan. 31 deadline to file an administrative order and Alabama Rivers Alliance, LLC has until March 31 to file motions for summary judgment with the court.
The suit is set for pretrial conference on Oct. 14 and if it goes to jury trial, the tentative date is Oct. 20.
Turner said though the lawsuit is in litigation, the board and the city are not required to wait on a judge’s ruling to begin construction. There has been no injunction filed which would void the current Section 404 permit.
However, he said the board is not at the point where they are ready to build the project because they do not know if the county will agree to participate in the project or if it will pull 40 percent of the board’s customers off service by building its own pipeline and treatment plant.
“We may as well wait on the lawsuit because that is how long it will take to know who our customers are,” he said.
Kitchens had previously said he felt uncertain about committing the county to the Duck River project because of its legal challenges.
“The whole process involves knowing the number of customers and how we will be able to repay this project,” Greer said.
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