Reducing river flow and raising the water temperature along the Pearl River are two of the major concerns of the Mississippi Wildlife Federation (MWF) when it comes to the One Lake Project.
The federation is worried about the impacts building a lake will have downstream.
The group is particularly concerned that adding dams to create a lake will reduce flow and potentially impact over 100 discharge permits to the south, said Lindsey Lemmons, MWF executive director.
“It’s our assumption that if you dam and impound water it will increase evaporation,” she said. “Our concern is for down the river.”
Lemmons said the federation is opposed to the project as it was originally introduced, but struck a conciliatory tone, saying that if the lake is approved by state and federal regulatory agencies, it should be allowed to proceed.
“We’re happy to see the project come as far as it has. They have reduced (lake surfaces) from 5,200 to 1,500 acres. They’ve changed the water control structures to help manage it during (times of) low flow.”
“A report on the project is expected to come out soon. We’re waiting to see if they’ve addressed our concerns.”
Last week, One Lake was in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ technical review phase.
That phase is expected to be completed this month. Then, the findings will be made available for public review.
The project was designed by Northside businessman John McGowan and is sponsored by the Rankin-Hinds levee board. It is a scaled back version of McGowan’s original Two Lakes Project. That plan was considered too environmentally damaging, and was scaled back to meet concerns of federal officials and environmental leaders.
The project currently being reviewed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
MWF is part of the “One River, No Lake’ coalition, and recently spoke at a town hall meeting at Smith Robertson Museum.
Other groups at the meeting included the Gulf Restoration Network, the Jackson Audubon Society, Pearl Riverkeeper and Sierra Club of Jackson.
Of the 100 or so discharge permits, Lemmons said companies, like International Paper (IP) and Georgia Pacific (GP), already come close to exceeding permitted discharge levels during low flow times, because of reduced water on the Pearl.
The firms are permitted by the Environmental Protection Agency and Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality to release a certain amount of industrial byproducts into the river.
Exceeding permitted amounts could lead to steep fines or the loss of the permit, Lemmons explained.
She didn’t say what materials are released by the paper companies.
“The cities and representatives down river are concerned,” she said. “We want to make sure those voices are heard up river.”
One Lake includes creating a 1,500-acre lake on the Pearl running from north of Lakeland Drive to south of I-20 near Richland.
The project would reduce flooding in the event of another Easter Flood by at least 90 percent, according to One Lake proponents.
The 1979 flood devastated the city of Jackson and parts of Rankin County.
The project also would create thousands of acres of developable waterfront property, as well as new land for recreational opportunities.
Lemmons said widening the river into a lake will heat the water’s surface temperature, leading to more evaporation. That increased evaporation, coupled with a new low head dam, would reduce flow going south, she said.
The increase in temperature could also impact the river along the Savanna Street Wastewater Treatment Plant. “The water temperature would be elevated just south of the new lake ... When you have an increase in the water temperature, it throws off the natural chemistry of the water,” she said. “It could increase algae blooms.”
Northsiders may remember algae blooms from 2007, when they entered the city of Jackson’s water system, causing the water to become almost undrinkable.
The Gulf Restoration Network claims the lake would reduce flow on the river near the Mississippi Gulf Coast by 90 cubic feet per second, or approximately 130 million gallons per day. Leaders with that group have met with several governmental bodies in South Mississippi and Louisiana.
And as a result, several local governments have passed resolutions in opposition of One Lake, including St. Tammany Parish, Washington Parish and the cities of Bogalusa and Pearl River in Louisiana, and Marion County, in Mississippi.
The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources have also come out against the project.
Supporters though, argue the resolutions have been passed thanks to the spread of false information, and that the network has never produced a study to back up the claims.
The project is currently being reviewed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The corps has already determined that the project will work hydraulically, and that having the lake and a dam would not reduce flow downstream.
Further, One Lake will have to release the same amount of water as the Ross Barnett Reservoir.
In fact, the reservoir was built to increase river flow.
The 33,000-acre reservoir was constructed in the 1960s.
“Flows got so low they couldn’t get water into the treatment plant. Jackson needed more water to sustain its population and grow,” reservoir General Manager John Sigman told the Sun previously.
Sigman was not speaking in favor or opposition to One Lake.
“We have a contract dated 1959 with the city of Jackson to (release) a minimum of 147 cubic feet per second. We can never reduce the flow,” he said.
