Call it the dilemma of the lake operator: There are always going to be two distinct uses that demand opposite conditions.
1. Playing, which requires it to be full for boating, swimming and lakefront views.
2. Flood control, which requires an empty tub before the floods start so it will have room to fill up when they come.
Most lakes are built with flood-control in mind, but gradually turn into recreational facilities because flood control isn’t that exciting and you only need it when you need it, often once every few decades or so. For example, proponents of building another lake near Jackson point to a 1979 flood as justification. There hasn’t been much trouble with flooding in the nearly 40 years since then – but there has been with the economy in that same area.
Jackson proper has suffered greatly in recent decades from population and business loss to North Jackson and its suburbs of Madison and Ridgeland. “One Lake” covers a very significant stretch: It would start at a weir in the Pearl River below Interstate 20 west of Richland, continuing to the north bordering Jackson on the west side and the bustling suburb of Flowood on the east. It would end north of Lakeland Drive.
Officials will face pressure to keep the $340 million lake full, but that doesn’t jive with the stated flood-control reason for building it. It’s an inherent problem of lakes.
We’ve already seen it happen in North Mississippi, where lakes Grenada, Enid, Sardis and Arkabutla were built for flood control but are now mainly managed for recreation, sometimes leading to tension with farmers downstream in the Delta who feel like they’re being starved of water needed for irrigation.
People in Marion County might be next to suffer the consequences of being downstream of a lake. There’s been tremendous interest, and the consensus is the lake will dry up the Pearl in summer.
Backers from the Rankin-Hinds Pearl River Flood and Drainage Control District try to address those fears in their study. Its conclusions: The Ross Barnett Reservoir hasn’t reduced water flows downstream and that “One Lake” would not cause enough evaporation — only 0.047 percent of the total water that flows into Lake Borgne at the mouth of the Pearl — to significantly reduce water levels.
A state water permit requires the Barnett Reservoir to release a certain amount to maintain adequate supplies downstream. The drainage district says that’s worked and that flows have actually increased from a little under a trillion gallons per year on average before the reservoir was built in the 1960s to a little over a trillion gallons per year today.
But Andrew Whitehurst of the Gulf Restoration Network, which opposes “One Lake,” said another analysis of the same data shows that on 18 percent of the days since 1960 the flow south of Jackson has been less than the 290 cubic feet per second needed to operate a nearby sewage treatment plant. He said “One Lake” operators will need permission from the Barnett Reservoir to give them more water during low periods.
The district says any water losses can be compensated with a combination of opening the gate on the “One Lake” weir and the Barnett Reservoir releasing more water. The study says it’s not anticipated that the project “would impact any downstream conditions.” It strains the imagination to think that building any lake would not cause some impact downstream.
And what if “One Lake” wants more water during the summer to meet its flow requirements, but Ross Barnett wants to hold onto it to keep property owners happy? You can bet the dilemma of the lake operator will come into play. n
