Water District Says Corps of Engineers Admit to Mistake But Doesn't Have Budget To Fix River Problem6/12/2023 Darren Doyle, story and photo: Edmonson County Water District personnel attended today's Edmonson County Fiscal Court meeting to give an update on a meeting last week with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about the current Green River situation that the Water District has described as "critical." Tony Sanders, General Manager for Edmonson Water summarized to the court in a brief oral report that the Corps admitted that their calculations were wrong when removing Lock #6 in Brownsville (2017) as well as the halted removal of Lock #5 in Roundhill (2021), but that the Corps did not have the money to fix the issues that the current condition of the river is causing Edmonson Water. Sanders said the meeting lasted around three hours and was attended by Water District personnel, Rep. Michael Meredith, representatives from Senator Rand Paul's Office, Senator Mitch McConnell's Office, and Congressman Brett Guthrie's Office, as well as the Nature Conservancy and Edmonson County Judge/Executive Scott Lindsey. No media was invited to the meeting. On May 25th, the Water District organized a similar meeting with the aforementioned groups, plus media; however, the Corps did not show and did not give the Water District nor the Edmonson Voice a reason for their last-minute email stating they could not attend. Sanders said the Corps organized last week's meeting, held at the Corps office. "The only thing that I took from the Corps of Engineers, their data in the beginning was not correct, they have no commitment as far as funding or as a solution to the problem that we face here on the Green River with low water levels," Sanders told the court. Sanders said the flow of the river is not the source of the problem for the Water District, but the depth of the river, which affects the river intakes. The intakes transport water to the Edmonson Water treatment plants. Federal legislators and other officials praised the dam removals at the time of demolition. Fish and wildlife experts estimated that the number of canoers and kayakers would double upon completion of their removals. "With the completion of today’s removal, we will finally return the Green River to its original, unimpeded state and reopen a crucial portion of the Commonwealth to boaters, sportsmen, and wildlife,” said U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell in 2021. An official government press release from 2021 noted that the dam removal was expected to greatly improve river conditions for nine different endangered mussel species and one type of endangered freshwater shrimp. Six years later and an emergency halt of the demolition of Lock 5, no one has mentioned mussels or shrimp. Signs have been placed along the river noting the danger to canoes and kayaks. Boats have zero access to the river between Roundhill and Mammoth Cave. The Green River Ferry at Mammoth Cave is constantly closed due to problems with river levels. The dam removals were supposed to help Edmonson County Tourism with the attraction of water sports and activities but the river is currently a wreck. Swift currents and rocky paths around Lock 6 do not attract anyone, the Nolin River looked like a war zone thanks to erosion and fallen trees after Lock 6's removal, and local water customers still couldn't care less about how many species of mussels are in the river, endangered or not. The experts bragged about the dam removals bringing the river back to its natural flow. That flow has caused sediment build up on the bottom of the river, and as the level of the river has dropped, the sediment is causing the bottom of the river to come up, for a double danger of water depth for the Water District. "We're not only losing elevation on top, we're losing elevation underneath, because of the sand and sediment," Sanders said. "The issue of water flow is not the problem. It's the water depth and therein lies the million-dollar question, or the several-million-dollar question, is how are we going to address the problem to get it took care of to get us back in a depth sustainable to treat water and not have a problem with maintenance issues." "We're going to ask our attorney in the morning to write up a resolution for support of building a structure here below the creek. There is a riffle there that is supposed to hold water at a certain depth and my board feels that if we were to build that up, sort of like they have in Bowling Green for their intake system, to give us that six or seven feet back in our pool, we'll be alright. The only other issue is the sediment. That's an unanswered question..." Sanders said that Sen. Paul's office is writing a letter to the Corps to assure no further demolition to Lock 5 will take place. "The Corps didn't offer a whole lot of help, and that was my take on it," Sanders said. "They had mentioned that their study was wrong but they don't have any answers. When it come down to paying for it, they basically said they didn't have it in their budget and they were not authorized to do any of that type of work." Judge/Executive Lindsey agreed. "They basically told us that they made a mistake but they didn't have the authority to fix it for us, or the funding," Lindsey said. Judge Lindsey also said that while Senator McConnell supported the removal of the dams, it was support based on incorrect information from the Corps of Engineers. Lindsey said he was in favor of putting full fiscal court support forward for a solution to the problem. "What they presented to him (McConnell) was that even if they took those dams out, we'd still be well above any kind of critical situation, and that's not the case at all." Lindsey also said that at one point the Corps suggested to the Water District that they just needed to raise their rates. Lindsey said one thing the Corps offered was to put together a task force that included themselves, the Wildlife Federation, Ky Fish and Wildlife, Edmonson Water, Judge Lindsey, Judge Choate from Hart County, and Judge Henderson from Grayson County. Lindsey said he had been assured at the national level that no more dam removal would take place until a solution was in order. Local Water Commissioner Greg Nugent credited fellow Commissioner Barry Rich for the demolition halt at Lock 5. He said Rich crossed the bridge on the morning of removal but as he crossed again that afternoon, he saw a noticeable level drop in the river. Nugent said Rich immediately contacted Water District personnel and they took action. "They went to the site where they were taking the lock out and asked them if they would halt, and they did halt it at that time," Nugent said. "We may have been hours away from not being able to pump water, so I want everybody to understand it's out of our hands. We can't control the river but if it hadn't been for the actions of these people noticing the problem, we very well could be without water." Even though everyone that spoke today felt like the Corps offered little help at the meeting, Rep. Michael Meredith did point out some positives. "I think that leadership at the Corps gained a better understanding of our position and an understanding of all of the negative affects this has had: water, roads, boat ramps, ferry operations and how those things are impacting our people, he told the Edmonson Voice. "I also think they better understand the mechanics of what’s happening in the river at the water plant. They obviously understand the water being shallower, but didn’t fully understand the affects of the sedimentation that is basically raising the floor of the river so that the water intakes are being squeezed in both directions. We did get a firm commitment to no further removal of the dam until a solution is actually in place, which was a positive. The Corps agreed to engage in a working group with the water district and the Nature Conservancy, and their engineers, to meet more regularly about potential engineering solutions, and the Congressional delegation is fully aware that whatever solution is decided upon will require federal funding to be implemented. The Corps also was willing to look creatively at their grant programs to see what opportunities are available to mitigate the issues that have been caused by the dam removals." Commissioner Rich said he hoped the structure that Sanders had discussed could be built and that the problem would be solved, despite what his take was from the meeting with the Corps.
"That meeting we had the other day, to me, was just a waste of our time," he said. "All they did was lay the burden on us. They said 'y'all hire you an engineering firm and come up with some solutions, bring them to us and we'll see if we okay one of them, but then y'all foot the bill.' We ain't got the money to foot that bill." After sharing more thoughts on the matter, Rich concluded with "The Edmonson County water system is in critical shape." Sanders discussed funding as the discussion came to a close. "Somebody's going to have to pay for it and the Water District feels, and I think most of the people in Edmonson County do, we didn't cause this problem and we feel shouldn't have to pay for it. Of course, the Corps of Engineers say they don't have the funding or the authority, the Nature Conservancy--and I will say this--they've worked with us. They've funded some of our cleanouts and helped us, but it's still going to cost a lot of money to get it took care of. If it cost five million dollars, even though it's a full grant, and it comes through the Water District, our customers are going to end up paying for it, because anything the Water District pays for on a big capital expenditure like this, the Public Service Commission makes us cover depreciation, and they'll count that in with our depreciation. So the customer will wind up paying this depreciation on this dam, or whatever the solution is, you know. So we feel it would be best if whoever funds it, whether it's the federal government, the Nature Conservancy, Corps of Engineers, that way the citizens of Edmonson County, Hart County, Grayson County, and a few customers in Warren County wouldn't have to be paying for something they didn't cause. That's our take on it." A request sent to the Corps of Engineers from the Edmonson Voice was not immediately answered.
2 Comments
Anthony Davis
6/12/2023 10:17:37 pm
So I’d still like to know where all the politicians are that so proudly had their pictures taken, bragging on themselves about what a good job they did. Again, silence and out of sight while the people of Edmonson County have a serious mess to clean up. There will be no consequences for anyone. If I conducted myself on my job the way they do, I would be terminated. Not only is it a potential disaster for our water supply, it’s a terrible eyesore. Again, government and use of tax dollars at its finest.
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Rickey Allen Smith
6/17/2023 09:07:44 am
You Anthony are 100% correct
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