The One Lake Project is a step closer to becoming a reality, but quite a few blocks will have to fall into place before the project is built on the Pearl River.
Recently, the Rankin-Hinds Flood and Drainage Control District (levee board) released its report evaluating the $355 million project.
The study recommends moving forward with One Lake and outlines a strategy to fund its construction.
Residents have at least until August 31 to comment on the study. After that, the report will be revised based on the comments received, and it will be submitted to the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) for approval.
If everything works out, officials say the lake could be built in as little as four years.
“All of this is based on getting approval and then getting the money,” levee board attorney Keith Turner said. “It depends on everything working out correctly.” ‘
Once public comment ends, Turner said it will take four to six weeks to modify the comment to reflect the commenting process.
“Then, we would send it to the assistant secretary of the Army. I can’t tell you how quickly it would take to review, it would be pure speculation,” he said. “We’re hoping they’ll do it in a matter of 90 days, but it may take longer.”
ASA was directed to “fast-track” the work under the 2016 Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation, or WIIN Act.
Turner wasn’t sure how long that would take, what workload the ASA has, what personnel are available to do the review, or the like.
Under federal statute, ASA must sign off on the project because it impacts a federal waterway.
Provisions in the 2007 Water Resources Development Act, or WRDA Bill, states that the project must be “technically feasibly and environmentally acceptable.”
Said Turner, “ASA makes the decision whether it’s a project they want to build.”
If One Lake is approved, the levee board will have to raise money to design the project. The design process itself would take nine months to a year.
“Also, during that time we’d be beginning to acquire properties and expanding the (levee district),” he said. “Then, we’d begin construction. That’s a two to three-year process.
Turner didn’t know how many properties the levee board would have to acquire or how much the levee district would have to be expanded.
The district is charged with maintaining the current levee system. Funds for maintaining those levees come from assessments made to property owners within the district.
“All of (this) is based on getting approval and getting the money. Ideally, if we had the money, we could get the design (done) next year. The project could take four years, but it depends on everything working out correctly.”
The project includes building a 1,500-acre lake on the river from north of Lakeland Drive to south of I-20 near Richland.
The project would include dredging the river and using materials to create developable shoreline and islands, some of which would be set aside to preserve natural habitats.
According to the report, construction would cost around $355 million (construction and interest costs) and would be paid for with a combination of federal funds, state funds and local assessments.
The project is being sponsored by the levee board as an alternative to the larger Two Lakes plan. That plan included building two large lakes along the river from the Ross Barnett Reservoir to south of I-20. In 2007, that proposal was deemed too expensive and environmentally damaging by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
One Lake was adopted by the levee board as the preferred alternative and began studying it in 2013. The project is more environmentally friendly, with the lake being built on a portion of the Pearl that was previously dredged and straightened.
Other options evaluated in the report included doing nothing, bolstering the current levee system, buying out property owners in the flood plain and relocating them, and making additional channel improvements to the river.
For more information, log onto rankinhindsflooddistrict.ms.gov.
