A resolution approving the final site location and authorizing public improvement, which may require acquisition of agricultural land by the use of condemnation, was passed by Clarke County Reservoir Commission during a public hearing Wednesday, Oct. 26.
The new reservoir that will be built as a result of the resolution will be located at dam site 4B, the same location that had previously been proposed.
Design of the reservoir will occur in 2017, with construction taking place in 2018 and 2019. The reservoir would then fill and be ready to use in the year 2020.
According to Mark Duben of HDR Engineering, Iowa law requires the owner of a surface water source reservoir to have legal control of the land areas 400 feet from the shoreline at the normal pool level in order to provide adequate protection for water quality and protection against development in the immediate area of the shoreline.
In July 2015, state legislature passed laws regarding the use of eminent domain that hampered Clarke County’s progress toward building a new reservoir. That legislation made it so the sizing of a new reservoir could not be based on any more than the size of the population in the most recent census – in this case 2010.
The current average day raw water demand in Clarke County is 1.273 million gallons per day (mgd), with West Lake providing an average day safe withdrawal capacity of .8 mgd, leaving a .437 mgd deficiency.
“The 2040 design average day raw water demand is 2.79 million gallons per day, which shows the need for a new reservoir with a safe withdrawal capacity of just under 2 million gallons per day,” Duben said.
Several residents of Clarke County spoke during the public hearing.
Retired physician Jim Kimball spoke in favor of constructing the new reservoir.
“I don’t know anything that’s more important to the human body than an adequate amount of clean, bacteria-free water,” Kimball said. “It looks to me like, from the studies that have been done and the activities that have been done, that this lake at site 4B is the answer to at least what we need now. And, I would heartily support its use, its development and I can’t understand anyone not wanting to have a good, adequate water supply for this community.”
Landowner Kathy Kelly said the CCRC has yet to fulfill the requirements of the 2015 legislation in regards to planning a water supply lake in Clarke County that enables the use of eminent domain condemnation to complete it.
“The law does not include that they could allow for economic development,” Kelly said. “It referred to the population, period, to determine the amount of acres that could be used. ... CCRC did not use the requirements of the law regarding population of Clarke County as a governing factor. Mr. Duben established the resulting lake to be $22 million more costly than the former 816-acre lake. It didn’t produce as much water, so they scrapped it.”