January 28, 2010

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
Savannah District, Corps of Engineers
Piedmont Branch
Attention:  Ms. Natalie Edwards
1590 Adamson Parkway, Suite 200
Morrow, Georgia 30260-1777

 Subject:  Indian Creek Reservoir, USACE Project Number 200900042

 Dear Ms. Edwards,

The Lake Wedowee Property Owners’ Association (LWPOA) is in receipt of the January 13, 2010, JOINT PUBLIC NOTICE, announcing Carroll County Water Authority’s intention to obtain a permit to construct a new reservoir near Bowdon, Georgia. 

The Lake Wedowee Property Owners’ Association (LWPOA) is an association of some 600+ Lake Wedowee property owners that strive together to enhance, improve and protect the quality of Lake Wedowee; to promote the general welfare and prosperity of its residents, and to stimulate public sentiment to these ends.

The LWPOA has great concern with the removal of water from the Little Tallapoosa River and its tributary, Indian Creek.  While the project appears to be a needed future resource for potable (drinking) water in the Carroll County Water Authority supply system, removal of water from the feed streams feeding Lake Wedowee (Harris Dam) will have a detrimental effect during low rain-fall period from mid-May through November of each year.  The notice states that 25 million gallon per day (mgd) will be removed from the reservoir to yield 18 mgd of potable quality water.  Although the maximum removed flow number appears small in river flow, it corresponds to 38.58 cfs.  A small portion of the processed waste water might be returned back to the river stream. 

Our concern can be documented by reviewing Lake Wedowee water level records where lake level has a historical average of being 5 feet below the Harris rule curve on October 1^st, the end of the summer pool period.  Three factors that influence Lake Wedowee water level include rainfall, hydro power generation, and minimum downstream flow requirements at Tallassee (Tallapoosa River) and at Montgomery (Alabama River).  Alabama Power Company does all it can to balance Tallapoosa River Basin water flow in conjunction with maintaining the Wedowee lake level along with the other competing water demands.

These factors have been explained in further detail in the attached letter to the Corps of Engineers, dated October 20, 2008, in response to the ACT Water Control Manual Revision Update.  Although the comments in the letter address various Lake Wedowee issues, these comments also apply to the Upper Tallapoosa River Watershed and the proposed project. 

Three graphs are enclosed to show the effects of drought on the two main feed rivers and to Lake Wedowee (Harris Dam).  The Tallapoosa River and Little Tallapoosa River graphs show a four months period in 2007 when both individual river flows were below the designed flow criteria for the Carroll County Water Authority water plant.  (Similar results were obtained during the summer of 2008).  The Harris rule curve graph sets the summer pool level at 793’ and winter pool level at 785’ and shows how the water level varies with the rule curve setting at different conditions.

The Alabama Power – Harris graph shows the Harris Dam rule curve (upper red line) and operating water levels for 2007 (heavy black line) and 2008 ( green line).  The 2007 trend line shows the extreme low water levels experienced at Lake Wedowee in November, with a low level of 13 feet below the rule curve.  The 2008 trend line shows a much better water level but approved flow variances were obtained to raise lake level two feet above the rule curve in January, to fill the lake early, and to reduce downstream minimum flow requirements to ensure that Lake Wedowee would be filled to the summer pool rule curve level.  Of course, the lake level started dropping down in June.  The thin black line represents the historical average water level and it drops well below the Harris rule curve as the summer progresses.

The point in presenting this data is to show the effects of low rainfall in the area and how hard it is to maintain Lake Wedowee water level as specified by the Harris rule curve (upper red line).  There is much political pressure to pass the water on down the Tallapoosa River Basin for generation, navigation, waste water plant discharge dilution, water supply, recreation, power plant cooling, endangered species, fish and wildlife, oyster production, etc.  These demands leave little room for water to be removed above Lake Wedowee without an adverse effect.

A major concern is that the permit should restrict Little Tallapoosa River water withdrawal for the Indian Creek Reservoir during periods when low Little Tallapoosa River flow occurs at the Newell Gauge.  The minimum low flow requirement for Newell Gage (for withdrawal) should be at least 50 cfs since the Little Tallapoosa River provides one third of the Lake Wedowee make up water flow and Harris Dam minimum discharge is based on ~160 cfs flow at Wadley.  If the permit is granted and the project goes forward, please provide us the assurance that there will be sufficient guidelines instituted that will alleviate any water flow and water quality situations that would result from water removal for the Carroll County Water Authority project. 

A list of questions regarding Indian Creek design criteria has been prepared and is enclosed at the end of this letter. 

Please place the LWPOA on the correspondence list for this project.  The LWPOA would like to send representatives to the Indian Creek Reservoir public meeting.   If you have any questions, please contact me at 334-885-6512 or Charles Sut Smith (for technical questions) at 256-357-4273.

Yours truly,

Oliver Kitchens
LWPOA Chairperson

Attachment

cc:  Mr. Richard Laird, Alabama State Representative

       Ms. Kim Benefield, Alabama State Senator

       Mr. Matt Bowden, Alabama Power Company

       Mr. James McIndoe, Alabama Department of Environmental  Management

       Mr. Tim Coe, Mayor, Town of Wedowee

       Mr. Lithonia Wright, Chairman, Randolph County Commission

       LWPOA Board of Directors

LWPOA questions regarding Indian Creek Reservoir:

 1.  What are the design holding capacity and the drawdown capacity of the proposed Indian Creek Reservoir? 

2.  What elevation is set for the reservoir normal design water level and the maximum drawdown water level for supplying the water plant?

3.  Will there be a minimum flow through the dam and at what rate and how will it be handled?

4.  What percentage of flow will Indian Creek supply to the Indian Creek Reservoir?

5.  What is the percentage of Indian Creek flow as compared to the Little Tallapoosa River flow at Newell Gage?

6.  What is the maximum rate of flow that will be removed from the Little Tallapoosa River when filling and supplying water for the Reservoir?

7.  Will the LTR pump controls be coordinated in conjunction with the Newell Gage flow and at what flow setting will the pumps be shut down to stop removing water from the Little Tallapoosa River during low river water flow periods?

Federal judge rules against Ga. in water litigation

By Bill Rankin, July 17, 2009

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A federal judge on Friday ruled the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been illegally reallocating water from Lake Lanier to meet metro Atlanta’s needs, but he’s not turning off the tap just yet.
The judge overseeing the high-stakes case wants a political solution and is sending the fight to Congress.
In the meantime, the current withdrawal levels from Lake Lanier will be allowed to stay the same — but not increase, U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson ruled. And if a political solution cannot be worked out in three years, the judge said, his order will take effect.

This means the metro area will not be allowed to use Lake Lanier as its primary source of water supply.

“Thus...only Gainesville and Buford will be allowed to withdraw water from the lake,” Magnuson said in a 97-page order. “The court recognizes that this is a draconian result. It is, however, the only result that recognizes how far the operation of the Buford [Dam] project has strayed from the original authorization.”
Magnuson, of St. Paul, Minn., was picked in 2007 to decide the almost two-decades-old tristate water wars case involving Georgia, Alabama and Florida.
His ruling handed the metro area a crushing legal defeat. The judge found that the Corps of Engineers should have obtained congressional approval before allowing Lake Lanier to be the metro area’s primary source of water supply.
In a joint statement, Georgia senators Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss acknowledged it is now up to Congress to reach a compromise.
“We will work tirelessly to reach an agreement that is in the best interest of Georgia while at the same time respecting the interests and concerns of Florida and Alabama,” the senators said. “This is a huge challenge, but it is a challenge we must meet.”

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley praised the ruling, saying he hopes it leads to renewed negotiations between the three states and a “fair and equitable” agreement.

“Atlanta has based its growth on the idea that it could take whatever water it wanted whenever it wanted it, and that the downstream states would simply have to do with less,” Riley said. “Following the court’s ruling today, this massive illegal water grab will be coming to an end.”
Gil Rogers, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, said the ruling puts Georgia in a much weaker negotiating position with respect to Lake Lanier water rights.
“This is a real wakeup call for the metro Atlanta area,” he added. “Drought or no drought, this area can no longer take water for granted and should move as quickly as possible to sustainable water management practices that do not involve controversial reservoirs.”
Magnuson said he was sympathetic to the plight of the Corps of Engineers because it has to deal with competing claims to Lake Lanier’s water — a finite resource.
But the judge said the Corps’ reallocation of Lake Lanier’s water without congressional approval was illegal and in violation of the Water Supply Act. And Magnuson said it was “beyond comprehension” that the Corps’ current operating manual for the Buford Dam is more than 50 years old.
He encouraged the Corps to update its water supply plans so those in the Apalachiocola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) river basin can determine how the operation of Buford Dam will affect their future interests and whether it can meet their water needs.
But Magnuson also said the blame cannot be placed solely on the Corps’ shoulders.
“Too often,” Magnuson wrote, “state, local and even national government actors do not consider the long-term consequences of their decisions. Local governments allow unchecked growth because it increases tax revenue, but these same governments do not sufficiently plan for the resources such unchecked growth will require.”
Nor do individual citizens consider frequently enough their own water consumption, absent a crisis such as the recent drought, the judge said.
“The problems faced in the ACF basin will continue to be repeated throughout this country, as the population grows and more undeveloped land is developed,” Magnuson said. “Only by cooperating, planning and conserving can we avoid the situtations that gave rise to this litigation.”