Lake Columbia Moves Toward Realization
By KELLY GOOCH
Staff Writer

Lake Columbia is one step closer to becoming a reality now that the United States Army Corps of Engineers has approved the final draft Environmental Impact Statement.

The Angelina & Neches River Authority spent years submitting drafts of the EIS to the Corps for review, with preliminary drafts being submitted in July 2007, August 2008, March, July 9 and Nov. 6.

ANRA General Manager Kelley Holcomb was "ecstatic" when he found out they had submitted their last draft.

"That means no more revisions and no more changes. That's the document we're going to public comment with…" he said. "This is very welcome news because we are through with that process."

Holcomb said he believes the Corps spent so much time reviewing EIS drafts because of the impact the lake would have on jurisdictional waters in the U.S., among other things.

"It's about getting the clarity in the document that the Corps felt was adequate to describe the impact of the project and the alternatives to the project," he said.

Holcomb estimated the final draft EIS to be about 600 pages, including maps and other reference materials.

He said the document goes into great detail to describe Lake Columbia and what impacts it has to things such as cultural resources, agriculture and homes.

It also addresses the impact of Lake Columbia alternatives, such as getting water from Lake Palestine or Toledo Bend.

"When most people read the document, they won't understand a lot of what it's saying. It talks a lot about plants and animals and they're throwing out (Latin) names … There's a lot of technical jargon associated with the document," Holcomb said.

PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD

Now that the Corps has approved the final draft EIS, officials are preparing to publish it in the federal register, marking the beginning of a 60-day public comment period.

Holcomb said he expected the public comment period to begin in February.

Once the public comment period is about halfway over, he said a public hearing and public information meeting will be held in Jacksonville.

"The whole point of all of this is to have access to this information by the general public. The public information meeting is the Corps staff, the third-party EIS contractor, ANRA and its consultants all standing around a number of displays maps and answering questions primarily," Holcomb said. The public hearing "will be the public's opportunity to enter their verbal comments into public record."

He said Corps officials will then decide how they want to deal with the comments and categorize them, most likely based on content.

Citizens also will be able to view the EIS online or at area libraries and city halls during the public comment period.

Holcomb estimated that the Corps will not make a decision on whether to issue a 404 permit until two to three months after the public comment period ends.

The permit would allow construction activities to begin, including work on a final design for the dam and dealing with utility companies who would be moving lines so the project could be constructed, Holcomb has said.

THE PROJECT

The Lake Columbia project itself would be in the Mud Creek floodplain.

It is projected to be 10,000 surface acres and about 14 miles long, with the dam site about two miles east of Jacksonville.

Lake Columbia's anticipated yield is 85,507 acre-feet annually for use by water supply customers.

The project also would create about 95 miles of shoreline associated with the lake, where animals such as deer could walk, Holcomb previously said.

He estimated the cost of the Lake Columbia project to be about $200 million.

According to the Lake Columbia project Web site, participants include Whitehouse, a 10 percent participant; Troup, a 5 percent participant, Jacksonville, a 5 percent participant; and Rusk, a 5 percent participant.

Holcomb previously said this means Whitehouse could take 10 percent of the firm yield from the lake and would in turn fund 10 percent of the total project cost.

"Water's becoming more and more of a commodity. Everybody's need for water is going to grow," Troup Mayor John Whitsell has said. "We're anticipating that it's (the Lake Columbia project) going to happen and hope it will happen sooner rather than later."

As of Tuesday, Holcomb said there have been a few complaints from landowners within the proposed project area, but most of them were centered around a lack of information or misinformation.

"They're not against the reservoir. They're just wanting to know how this stuff is going to work and, 'How are you going to buy the land?' and 'When are you going to do it?' … so you have to respond individually to their individual questions," he said.

Holcomb also noted the benefits of such a project.

"We're talking approximately 1,200 temporary jobs being created during this three to five year construction span," he said. There also will be "some 300 to 350 permanent jobs created during that time frame."