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May 21, 2011

Duck River dam project: Watershed Management plan reintroduced

Now state bill instead of local; still not seeking local regulatory authority

By Trent Moore The Cullman Times

City and county officials reintroduced plans to create a Watershed Management Authority (WMA) for the Duck River dam project this week, though the spirit of the proposed bill remains intact.

The Cullman City Council and Cullman County Commission have both asked the local legislative delegation to introduce a statewide bill to form the new authority, which is requested in the city’s dam permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Officials initially approved plans to have the bill introduced a few months ago, though a technicality required it to be redone.

“The current law in the state allows for the creation of watershed management authorities with a 50-mile radius, but Duck River is only 35-square-miles, so it wouldn’t meet the criteria,” city attorney Roy Williams said. “We have been working with the legislature to draft a statewide bill that will allow projects such as Duck River to have a watershed management authority.”

Though the bill has shifted from statewide to local, that is effectively the only change. As originally decided, the WMA will not seek any regulatory authority in the watershed, and property owners will remain under current state and federal environmental guidelines.

“It states that we don’t want to supersede ADEM or the EPA, but just work with soil and water conservation on the best management practices,” Duck River project manager Dale Greer said. “This legislation just clears the way for the authority to happen, and there would still be public hearings and all those things throughout the process.”

The need for regulatory control was included in the original permit from the late 1990s as a means to improve and maintain water quality, though those issues have since been resolved. In the years since the initial permit was granted, officials say state and federal regulations have more than filled the void to alleviate water quality concerns.

The WMA will consist of 10 initial members, with appointments made by the city, county and other wholesale water customers. The board will also be tasked with forming a water management plan for the area.

Long-term plans call for the members of the WMA to eventually own the lake, based on the amount of water they purchase through the life of the 30-year bond to fund the project. The proposal states that ownership of the reservoir will ultimately vest in those water systems purchasing water from the Duck River reservoir in percentages of ownership commensurate with the percentages of water purchased.

“There is nothing in the legislation that would prohibit that and it is still everyone’s goal once that is in place,” Greer said.

Cullman County Commission Chairman James Graves said he believes the formation of a WMA will ensure local input and control over water for decades to come.

“We’re behind this and very much in favor of it,” he said.

State Rep. Jeremy Oden said the local legislative delegation plans to sponsor the bill, though there may not be enough time to get it passed in the current session.

“The big thing is the city and county working together, and it seems like this was a very corporate bill, where a lot of folks had input, and that’s a very good thing,” he said. “It’s going to have to be passed as a statewide law with local implications, so it’ll be up before the entire house, and if there are any hang-ups it could throw us off this session. Just because there is so little time left in the session, it could be tough to get it through.”



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

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