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  • Steve Newton, with CH2M Hill, discusses the City of Cullman’s Duck River Dam project at a Tuesday meeting. A sketch of the proposed water source project can be seen on the screen behind him. Trent Moore

    City updating management plan

Discussion

June 22, 2011

City updating management plan

Federal, state local officials meet on project

By Trent Moore The Cullman Times

With land acquisition under way, and construction set to start in the coming months, the team managing Cullman’s Duck River Dam project is eyeing some updates to the watershed management plan meant to ensure long-term water quality.

The watershed management plan is required by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s permit to construct the $68 million project, which will create a 640-acre lake with a 32-million-gallon-per-day capacity. The new reservoir will serve as a secondary water source, in addition to Lake Catoma. Funding for the project is already in place, as $58 million in bonds sold out in a matter of hours earlier this month.

Steve Newton, with project engineer CH2M Hill, said the current management plan is more than a decade old and should be revised before the project begins in earnest.

“The water management plan is from 1999, and many of the goals and objectives in there are things we’re already working on,” Newton told a group of federal, state and local officials at a planning meeting Tuesday. “It’s not unusual to update these on an annual basis, and I think it’s time we sit down and make a few changes. One thing that’s important is to make the plan consistent with the current regulatory climate, and to add our biological monitoring plan and some other things we’re doing.”

Project manager Dale Greer cited environmental lawsuits that stalled construction for much of the 2000s as one reason the plan is outdated.

“It was stuck in litigation for several years, but we had Tim [Scott] working with the farmers out there to take care of things during that time, to improve the problems that were present,” he said.

In the years since the original management plan was written, Tim Scott, with the Cullman County Soil and Water Conservation District, said local farmers and agencies have already improved many of the water quality issues that existed in years past.

“We’ve been monitoring the water quality, and now we’re getting more in-depth information out of that,” he said. “We have farmers doing rotational grazing, using alternative water sources (i.e. small ponds) and controlling creek access for cattle. We also do a lot of education now, with field days and student programs for all ages.”

Greer noted plans are moving quickly now that the suit has been settled and water quality issues that existed in the 1990s have improved.

Four property owners in the dam footprint have already agreed to sell, and a cultural resources team is slated to hold a final check on the site next month.

“We are trying to move forward rapidly now, and we feel we’re in good shape,” Greer said.

The utilities board is still weighing its options on how to establish a water management authority. A bill to establish a new board with no regulatory authority failed to pass the legislature last session, but officials may reintroduce it. Greer said some other options, such as establishing an advisory board in the interim, are also being considered.



* Trent Moore can be reached by e-mail at trentm@cullmantimes.com, or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 220.

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