Georgia needs reservoirs to mitigate water shortages for homes and farms
when we have droughts. I have no confidence in any county commission who bases
needs on “projections”. I have no confidence in consultants who support
projects based on “projections”. I have no confidence in Obama’s Corp of
Engineers.
The AJC article 12/9/16 on the cancellation of the Newton County
reservoir failed to mention that the Corp of Engineers withdrew the permit for
the dam in 2015. See below:
Newton County halt to reservoir has implications across Georgia, By Chris Joyner - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 10/21/15
Officials in Newton County voted
this week to stop work on a planned reservoir after spending 15 years and at
least $20 million in taxpayer money when they realized they could not convince
federal regulators they needed it.
While it is a local government
decision, the shelving of the Bear Creek Reservoir by the county’s Board of
Commissioners has repercussions for water policy across the northern half of
the state, where similarly situated reservoir projects await their fate.
“It is a big deal. It’s almost
shocking,” said Chris Manganiello, the policy director for the Georgia Rivers
Network, an environmental group opposed to the reservoir. “I think the people
of Newton County spoke out and the county listened.”
Manganiello said the board’s
decision “casts a doubt on the justification for (proposed) reservoirs all over
Georgia.”
The board voted 4-0 in a meeting
Tuesday to stop any further work on the proposed drinking water reservoir just
southeast of Covington. The move comes
after the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers this summer pulled the county’s application for a dam
permit — known as a 404 permit — after
repeatedly questioning the county’s consultant over whether the project was
needed.
“The Corps of Engineers are calling
the shots,” Commissioner John Douglas said. “They have put our 404 permit on
hold. We can’t go any further without it.”
But Douglas said it was not just the
federal government’s position on the project that caused the commissioners to
change course. “A lot of the citizens of the county have let us know that they
want us to slow down,” he said.
Bear Creek, originally proposed in
2000, was pitched with the idea that Newton County was on the verge of
explosive residential growth. State projections showed the county, with a
current population of about 102,000, was expected to grow to more than 400,000
by 2050.
Douglas said those earlier
projections were “unrealistic.”
“Now the latest projections are less
than 200,000,” he said.
The project was originally estimated
at $62 million, but that figure doubled over time, ballooning to $125 million.
Commissioner Nancy Schulz, who
referred to Bear Creek as a “rabbit hole,” said the decision to move away from
the troubled project will allow the county “to shift our focus to maximizing
our current water resources.”
“We spent a lot of money, clearly,
on Bear Creek over the years,” she said. “Right now, money is a precious
resource, too. You can’t just keep spending money — for lack of a better word —
like water.”
Commissioner Levie Maddox said the
decision does not kill the reservoir. “I would phrase it as it’s on pause for a
thorough review, locally,” he said. When asked whether he believed the project
would eventually be built, Maddox hedged.
“I don’t think anything will happen
until we get a new county manager and he has his staff shaped up,” Maddox said.
The county currently is without a permanent manager.
Regardless, the decision is a
stunning reversal for a project that seemed a sure thing just a few years ago
when it qualified for $21 million in low-interest loans as part of Gov. Nathan Deal’s program to kick-start reservoir
development across the state.
“The state will not offer you a loan
unless they have assurances that you are going to cross the finish line,”
Newton County Attorney Tommy Craig told
The Covington News in August 2012. Craig, who serves as the county’s paid consultant on the project and is a consultant for other reservoir
projects across the state, proclaimed Bear Creek was “on the final leg of the
journey” and predicted the project would get the needed federal permit in just
a few months. That didn’t happen, and the county never received the loans.
But Schulz said the legal bills kept
coming.
“I scrutinize the county attorney
invoices every month,” she said. “Just in September we spent $17,000 in legal
fees just going back and forth to the corps trying to justify (the project).”
Juliette Cohen, the executive
director of the environmental watchdog group Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, said
the Newton County decision is a precedent she hopes other local governments
will follow when it comes to their own long-delayed reservoirs. “It seems like
sanity prevailed,” she said. “It seems they realized they were spending good
money after bad.”
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