History

Cullman’s impending water shortage is not a new threat to the area. Local officials and politicians began assessing Cullman’s water needs fifteen years ago when the county’s poultry industry skyrocketed. Officials from the city and county government, as well as a representative from the Morgan County Commission, formed an advisory board called the Cullman Morgan Water District, which specifically set out to secure funding for research and planning to prepare for increased water needs in the future. Later, other interested parties were included in the board as the need to secure water became more wide-spread in the area.

The board realized Cullman’s water reservoir, Lake Catoma, would soon be insufficient to produce enough water to service future customers with the expansion of industry and increased population in the area. The lake could produce 18-20 million gallons of water a day, but experts concluded the area would need more than 23 million gallons of water a day by year 2015.

After receiving some grant funding, the water district enlisted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to find a supplemental water source. The corps, along with additional engineers and researchers, came to the conclusion that of all the available water sources in the area, damming the Duck River in northeast Cullman County to construct a 640-acre reservoir was the answer.

Money

In 1994, the Cullman/Morgan Water District used money from a $5 million Appalachian Regional Commission grant to pay for a study to be conducted by the Nashville Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to assess the future water needs of the area. Once that study was completed, the water district sought a second study, also paid for from the ARC grant, to be done by the corps with the assistance of two engineering firms, Almon and Associates and St. John and Associates, hired by the water district. The first study, which cost $125,000 predicted the dam on Duck River would cost $72 million. The second study cost $150,000, but projected the Duck River project would cost $26 million. Both studies were sent to U.S. Rep. Tom Bevill, who was the ranking member of the Energy and Water Development subcommittee, which funds the ARC. Corps Project Manager Mike Wilson said in 1995 the difference in the two cost estimates was because of design changes made in the second study, including restructuring the spillway, redesigning the intake system and restructuring the dam. The second plan would also allow the dam’s height to be increased in the future if more water was needed. According to engineers’ second study, the city needed to have the dam completed and operational in 2001, with construction to begin in 1998. The city and the county were expected to come up with 25 percent of the funding, with the rest to come from federal and state agencies. Members of the Cullman Morgan Water District directed the progress of the Duck River Dam project and sought the support and financial assistance of the water systems who relied on water from the Cullman Utilities Board. The utilities board asked each of its 33 customers to sign a contract to purchase water for 30 years from the City of Cullman in order to ensure funding for the Duck River dam project, should it go through construction. The customers signed their contracts and agreed to a maximum amount of water they were allowed to purchase. However, the contracts had a stipulation they would only be entitled to participate in the Duck River Dam project if the total cost did not exceed $50 million.

Years passed as the project became held up in legal action and the cost of inflation raised the project’s price to a 2008 estimate of $59.5 million, as predicted by engineering firm CH2M Hill, which is now managing the project for the city along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The project, including initial engineering costs, is being paid for up-front by the City of Cullman. Cullman Mayor Donald Green said the city has an agreement to loan the money to the utilities board, to be paid back once the project is completed and new water rates are established for customers.

To date, the city has loaned the utilities board $606,661.38 from its general fund for costs associated with preliminary engineering. The rest of the funding for the initial phases of the project came from state, federal and independent grants the utilities board has acquired, including another $5-million-grant the project received from the ARC in December 1996.

Why Duck River?

The ARC grant was given to the water district in order to find a solution to produce at least 24 million gallons of water per day. "That eliminated several options right there," Greer said. Plans such as getting water from Flint Creek or Mulberry Fork, which engineers had been considering, could only produce a maximum of 12 million gallons of water a day and were no longer viable plans.

"The Corps of Engineers out of Nashville was working on the Flint Creek project," Greer said. "When they realized it wasn't possible to get enough water out of Flint Creek to meet the grant requirements, they saw Duck River was the best option."