The updated demand model demonstrating the Hot Springs water system and numerous other water utilities' need for Lake Ouachita water has been recommended for approval, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said earlier this month.
Katy Breaux, the Vicksburg District's senior project manager, said the Mid Arkansas Water Alliance's demand model is set to go before the Corps' Model Certification Panel for the Office of Water Project Review, putting the reallocation study needed for a water supply agreement back on track after problems with the previous demand model discovered last year stalled the process.
Issues with the previous model were revealed when the reallocation study was submitted for peer review to the Corps' Southwest Division. The updated version has already cleared the agency technical review requirement, Breaux said. If the model certification panel approves the updated model, the reallocation study can be presented for public agency review -- the fourth step in a seven-step process that culminates in the assistant secretary of the army signing a water supply agreement.
Greg Raimondo, Vicksburg District public affairs chief, said an agreement could be signed within a year, depending on how quickly the public agency review proceeds. Hydropower producers will be one of several entities submitting comments. MAWA's approximately 30 million gallon a day request would come from Lake Ouachita's hydropower pool, requiring compensation for water that would no longer be available to generate power at Blakely Mountain Dam.
MAWA'S allocation would be drawn from the level below the 2.25 mgd allocation the North Garland County Water District secured from the hydropower pool. Hot Springs is seeking 8.75 mgd of the MAWA allocation request along with a separate 7 mgd request. Dale Kimbrough, MAWA president, said the balance of the request would go to MAWA's Southern Working Group, a collection of utilities south of the Arkansas River
Kimbrough said Garver Engineering was contracted in December to update the demand model after developing the initial one in 2004. The revised version was submitted for agency technical review in February, receiving 10 comments that Garver addressed to the ATR panel's satisfaction, Breaux said.
She said a demand model, which projects future water needs based on population growth, weather patterns, economic trends and other factors, is needed to ensure water systems have a legitimate need and aren't trying to stockpile water they can sell to other systems.
Its completion is one of the first steps of a reallocation study, but the demand model Garver developed in 2004 didn't meet new regulations the Corps adopted in 2011. Breaux, who took over the reallocation study in 2013, said the demand model lacked supporting documentation required by the new regulations.
Seeking a waiver to allow the reallocation study to proceed with the flawed demand model was discussed, but Kimbrough said he was told no mechanism existed for letting the study go forward with the flawed model.
He said the cost of updating the demand model will be allocated according to the amount of water each system is seeking from the 30 mgd request. Hot Springs and MAWA paid the Corps $150,000 for the reallocation study in October 2012.
Because Congress didn't authorize Lake Ouachita for municipal water supply, a reallocation study is required for the Corps' chief of engineers to exercise his discretionary authority to repurpose part of the lake's 2.76 million acre feet of storage capacity.
The chief of engineers could previously reallocate up to 50,000 acre feet, but Breaux said that policy is no longer in effect. A new policy quantifying a different amount available for reallocation has yet to be developed, she said.
The city committed $1.07 million for a 20 mgd allocation from DeGray Lake, but Breaux said the state Department of Health has deemed the re-reg pool below DeGray Lake's dam as an unreliable water source. It's inaccessible during periodic drawdowns that lower the water level below a potential intake site every five to 10 years.
Putting an intake in the re-reg pool had been discussed by the city, as sourcing water from below the dam would have avoided compensating hydropower producers for lost water. The city would have to incur those costs if it put an intake on the upper pool near the Arlie Moore site Kimzey Regional Water District uses to access its 6 mgd allocation.
Local on 05/29/2016