By Trent Moore
The Cullman Times
CULLMAN —
The proposed Duck River Dam took a step closer to becoming reality this month, as city officials met with the U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers and a local engineering firm in an effort to update the project plans.
The City of Cullman intends to build a dam in the Duck River watershed to create a 640-acre lake and a six-mile pipeline with a 32-million-gallon-per-day capacity. The reservoir would resemble the one at Lake Catoma, currently the area’s sole water source.
The plans for the $70 million project need to be updated because they were first written around 1999, and Duck River has faced numerous delays due to environmental lawsuits over the past decade — though those suits have since been resolved.
“On July 11 we met with the Army Corps. of Engineers to look at the plans, and they’re going to handle about half of that,” Duck River project manager Dale Greer said at a city utility board meeting Tuesday. “The other half will be handled by [project engineering firm] CH2MHill. Now, we have to get the two of them together to update the plans for construction.”
It is estimated to cost approximately $200,000 to revamp the plans, and that cost will likely be split between the Corps. of Engineers and CH2MHill.
With the city’s long-term permit to build Duck River set to expire in November 2016, Greer said the utility board needs to have a schedule developed, in case of any unforeseen delays.
“Six years could be a short time frame for us, so we need to get everything in place,” he said. “A lot of the buffer lines and things like that are still the same, so a lot of the original work that was done is still useable.”
Part of the refresh will include finding and adding potential new residents that may now own land in the watershed, which includes approximately 94 landowners.
“We need to get a property acquisition team in place, and do the title work to line up who the landowners are,” Greer said. “We also need to set up a public meeting pretty soon for the property owners out there to ask questions and get more information.”
The completion of some required cultural digs in the watershed are another step coming up later this year.
“We don’t anticipate anything of interest being found, but we have to get the University of Alabama out here to dig two cultural sites, which is part of the agreement [to start the project],” Greer said. “That’s something you have to get done before you can start construction.”
An update on the ongoing environmental study in the watershed has also been announced, and more results should be known in the coming months.
Environmental survey teams have been on site recently completing lengthy environmental tests, which are required before the city can build the dam.
“We weren’t able to get one site for monitoring, but we finished most of that up and should get results in within the next two months,” Tim Scott, with the Cullman Soil and Water Conservation District, said. “We’ve seen a lot of species, but nothing really out of the ordinary. We’ve also done some water samples, and the nitrate levels, pH levels and everything else is looking good.”
Every major wholesale city water customer has signed new contracts through the length of the Duck River plan, except for the Cullman County Commission. The parties signed on account for approximately 53 percent of area water users. The Vinemont, Anon and West Point (VAW) Water Authority, Walter, East Cullman, Cullman water department and Johnson’s Crossing Water Authorities have all agreed to purchase water from the city until 2040.
‰ Trent Moore can be reached by e-mail at trentm@cullmantimes.com, or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 225.
