Lake study inches toward finish line
The clock is ticking on getting the reallocation study the city needs approved before it can take water from Lake Ouachita to the assistant secretary of the army, Deputy City Manager Bill Burrough told the Hot Springs Board of Directors earlier this week.
Burrough briefed the board on his trip to Washington, D.C., last week to push the study over the finish line. The city’s request for a water supply agreement has been trundling through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ dense bureaucracy for 12 years.
Burrough urged the city’s congressional delegation and Corps representatives to get the study to Assistant Secretary of the Army Katherine Hammack before she leaves office Jan. 9, which is the same day she’s supposed to receive the study.
“One of the things we learned when meeting with the Corps is that regardless of what happens in the election, (Hammack) is leaving her post Jan. 9,” Burrough told the board. “That’s the exact date the reallocation study is scheduled to transmit to her office for signature.
“She has stated she would like to see that completed prior to her leaving her term in office. One of the things we discussed with all of our delegates as well as the Corps was trying to compress that time. This reallocation study has been developing since 2004, and we’re right on the final stages of getting this approved.”
Burrough told The Sentinel-Record he hopes Hammack’s successor will approve the study if it doesn’t reach her on time, but submitting it for her approval holds more promise for an expeditious resolution.
The city’s 2005 agreement with Entergy Arkansas Inc. to withdraw water from upper Lake Hamilton prohibits it from exceeding an average of 20 million gallons a day that’s calculated on a three-month rolling average. According to the Department of Health, the city’s water system has the capacity to treat 28.33 mgd and had an average daily use of 14.6 mgd last year.
“(Hammack) has been aware of the processes and issues related to the study,” he said. “It would be more advantageous to the entire group to pursue authorization prior to the transition date.”
The study is scheduled to arrive at the Vicksburg District’s office for a technical review and a 30-day public comment period Monday before going to Corps headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 31. Burrough said he’s asked the Corps to fast track the study through the nine-week interim between its arrival at headquarters and submission to Hammack, a request he said is reasonable in light of the scrutiny the study’s received since the city and the Mid Arkansas Water Alliance (MAWA) paid the Corps $150,000 to conduct it in 2012.
“We already know how much water we need and how much it’s going to cost,” he said.
Lake Ouachita isn’t congressionally authorized for municipal water supply, requiring a reallocation study before the Corps’ chief of engineers can exercise discretionary authority to repurpose part of the lake’s 2.76 million acre feet of storage capacity.
The study calculates how much a system has to pay the Corps for storage and payments it disburses to hydropower producers for lost revenue caused by water being diverted from power generation, one of the lake’s congressionally authorized purposes.
It also assesses demand, assuring the Corps systems have a legitimate need and aren’t trying to stockpile water they can sell to other systems. The Corps’ Planning Center of Expertise for Water Management and Reallocation Studies found flaws in the demand model for the city/MAWA study last year.
Based on a joint water resource study the Corps’ Vicksburg and Little Rock districts conducted for Ouachita and Greers Ferry lakes in 2003, the model lacked supporting documentation required by new regulations the Corps adopted in 2011.
The Corps’ Model Certification Panel for the Office of Water Project Review approved an updated model in June, putting the reallocation study back on track. It’s uncertain how soon a water supply agreement would be signed after the reallocation study is approved.
Burrough said the city may be able to acquire a bigger share of the joint 30 mgd reallocation it and MAWA requested in 2004 to meet their water needs through 2050. Burrough said some systems in MAWA’s Southern Working Group, a collection of roughly 20 water systems south of the Arkansas River, have found alternative sources or turned back their shares of the reallocation request.
The city requested 15.75 mgd from the 30 mgd request.
“We need to get a firm commitment from MAWA on who’s willing to pay for what,” he said. “There may be some additional allocations available.”
The North Garland County Water District is the only system with a Lake Ouachita allocation, having rights to a 2.25 mgd allotment. Burrough said it may have an interest in acquiring more water through the joint city/MAWA request.
The city committed $1.07 million to Central Arkansas Water (CAW) in 2013 for right of first refusal on a 20 mgd DeGray Lake allocation that’s part of the 120 mgd the Ouachita River Water District (ORWD) agreed to provide CAW’s predecessor, Little Rock Municipal Water Works, in 1988.
CAW is a third-party beneficiary to the ORWD’s agreement with the federal government that gives it right of first refusal on the 152 mgd congress authorized for municipal water use.
Burrough said the Corps wants the city to pay storage costs before it begins withdrawing water, which the city contends is in conflict with the Water Supply Act of 1958. It points to language that prohibits payments for storage of future water supply until the supply is used.
The city and Corps are also discussing payments due to hydropower producers for water diverted from power generation. The city has argued that the shared pool for water supply and power generation in DeGray Lake doesn’t entitle hydropower producers to foregone benefits as it does in Lake Ouachita, where water supply is drawn from the hydropower pool.