The Kings Mountain Herald
April 3, 2008
_ EMILY WEAVER
£ . .
¢ eweaver@kingsmountainherald.com
The City of Kings Mountain
wants another reservoir and so
does the county. Will both be
granted lakes or only one? If
water is “gold” in the future,
who will be the provider of that
wealth?
Before engineers can shore up
KM'’s, possibility, the Lake
Committee must first tackle the
slippery slope ahead. Members
of the Lake Committee met with
officials from the U. S. Army
Corps of Engineers and the NC
Division of Water Resources
Friday morning to discuss the
next steps toward securing an
additional impoundment east
of Moss Lake.
USACOE Special Projects
Manager Henry Wicker told the
committee that there are some
“overlapping” issues that need
to be addressed. According to a
preliminary map of the
Cleveland County Sanitary
District's proposed lake in
upper Cleveland, the county’s
service area allegedly overlaps
that of Kings Mountain's.
Wicker suggested that KM
have a meeting with CCSD and
the City of Shelby to discuss the
water supply and overlapping
service issues. He added that
although each project stands on
its own merit, it is difficult for
USACOE to permit multiple
TeServoirs.
In order to secure an addi-
tional impoundment, the city
will need state and federal per-
mits which are required
through national and state envi-
ronmental policy acts and the
Clean Water Act. Wicker and
Jim Mead, with NCDWR,
explained the lengthy process
that the city will have to go
through to acquire the permits.
The process includes: outlin-
ing the purpose and need of the
project; “scoping” out the idea
through preliminary comments
from responsible agencies
and/or the public; and report-
ing the project's environmental
affects through an environmen-
tal assessment and an environ-
mental impact statement (EIS).
Mayor Rick Murphrey said
that the city is committed to the
idea of another reservoir. “We
feel that the need is there,” he
said. “With_all we see that’s
coming, we know we'll need an
additional impoundment.”
Wicker suggested they begin
by mapping out the boundaries
of the proposed wetland and
Eats bn ala ab Ra Ta al Bid de edd d wd iid
start an environmental assess-
ment to determine all of the
“impacts” a second lake may
pose.” Even though the city’s
preferred outcome would be a
second lake, Wicker said that
they will have to address other
alternatives in the EIS process,
including: conserving water,
utilizing groundwater, increas-
ing withdrawal at the existing
intake site and purchasing
water from other sources like
Shelby or the county. The EIS
will determine the type of per-
mit the city will need.
“We will permit the least
environmentally damaging
practical alternative,” Wicker
said.
Project Manager Ron Geiger,
with HDR Engineering, a com-
pany that has been working
with the city on the lake project,
expressed concern that the
process they would have to go
through sounds more political
than environmental. Wicker
said although there may be pol-
itics behind it, “this is an envi-
ronmental issue.”
He mentioned that the county
will hold a “Scoping” meeting
for the public on the proposed
Upper Cleveland reservoir on
April 17th. Geiger said that
KM'’s process towards a second
lake hasn't slowed down and
they would like to keep the ball
rolling. Wicker said he under-
stands the need, but “it is not
about who gets an impound-
ment first.”
Mead said the issues state
agencies will focus on are habi-
tat vs. stream flow, water sup-
EMILY WEAVER/HERALD
Sitting near the dry erase board inside of City Hall, Jim Mead, with the NC Division of Water
Resources, outlined some of the steps the city will have to go through to get a state permit for
the construction of an additional impoundment at a Lake Committee meeting on Friday morn-
ing.
ply, secondary or cumulative
impacts, dam safety, watershed
reclassification and water quali-
ty. Mead said they are currently
measuring the in-stream flow
from Moss Lake. After those
measurements are collected,
they will study the in-stream
flow of Muddy Creek near the
proposed second lake. Through
these studies they hope to see
how the two lakes would work
together and to come up with
short-term and long-term pre-
dictions of water supply and
quality.
Murphrey said the city’s pre-
liminary studies have shown
that by the year 2050, Moss
Lake will no longer be able to
supply the growth sxpecied for
the region.
Over the next 12-15 months,
Geiger said that they plan to
provide a preliminary geo-tech-
nical analysis and engineer
work on the proposed reservoir
to validate construction costs
and constructability.
Wicker warned that other
issues, including land owner-
ship, may also arise during the
process. But the city hopes that
none of the issues will clog their
dreams of another reservoir.
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