Reservoir Commission takes no action at public hearing
The Clarke County Reservoir Commission (CCRC) did not take any action at its April 23 public hearing meeting held at the Clarke County Fairgrounds for consideration of a resolution to build a lake as a surface drinking water source in the Squaw Creek Watershed. The Squaw Creek Watershed is located northwest of Osceola.
“After hearing comments and questions from approximately fifteen citizens, twelve of which were citizens of Clarke County, the CCRC Board did not take any action for consideration of the resolution, so as to ensure that CCRC Board of Directors have time to study planning and engineering documents pertaining to the questions that were raised at the meeting by concerned citizens,” said Sandy Kale, Chairperson of the Clarke County Reservoir Commission.
Jack Cooley, Vice-Chairperson of the CCRC and a Clarke County Supervisor noted, “The primary purpose in passing the proposed resolution is to select a site that will accommodate an average daily withdrawal of three million gallons of water.”
Cooley added, “We asked the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Des Moines to evaluate five sites and according to the February 26, 2009 Clarke County Water Supply Draft Watershed Plan and Environmental Impact Statement, there appears to be one site that will meet the daily demand. At this time, CCRC needs to choose a site so that we can complete the required studies on a selected site. These studies will include preliminary drilling of soil samples for the earthen dam and lake bed, and archaeological studies within the project area that may be disturbed during construction of the water supply reservoir.
In passing the resolution, it will enable CCRC to chose a site and complete the preliminary studies and, therefore, make the project eligible for nineteen million dollars from the USDA Watershed Protection and Prevention Act.”
Chairperson Kale agreed, adding “passing the resolution does not guarantee that the lake will be built, but it ensures that the project will be considered for cost share assistance.”
According to Cooley, “the draft watershed plan completed February 2009 suggests a lake size of 884 acres and proposes acquiring three thousand seven hundred ninety-eight acres for the entire project.” Cooley said, “I mention this because of an article that appeared in the Osceola Sentinel-Tribune on April 2, 2009, entitled Meeting of Land Owners Affected by Lake Project. The article stated that the estimated area for the project was 32,946 acres and that six thousand acres are to be acquired for the project. The watershed area, however, is 18,360 acres in size and 3,798 acres will be considered for purchase. The newspaper article, unfortunately, was incorrect.”
Regarding the current withdrawal rates from Osceola’s water source, West Lake, CCRC Chairperson Sandy Kale said, “The March 2008 Future Water Demands study completed by Howard R. Green Company states the City of Osceola is withdrawing 93 percent of the West Lake’s average withdrawal capacity. In 2010, the study estimates that the average daily raw water demand for Osceola Water Works is projected to exceed the current average withdrawal capacity of 1,370,000 gallons from West Lake.”
The resolution will be on the commission’s agenda for its May 14 meeting at 7 p.m. at the Clarke County Fairgrounds. The Clarke County Reservoir Commission is an Iowa 28E Intergovernmental organization made up of representatives from the cities of Osceola and Woodburn and Murray, Clarke County Board of Supervisors, Clarke Soil and Water Conservation District, Osceola Water Board, Clarke County Conservation Board, Clarke County Development Corporation and the Southern Iowa Rural Water Association (SIRWA).
The CCRC is assisted by the Southern Iowa Resource Conservation and Development Area, Inc.
