Mike Lee of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation as he points to the wetland mitigation site on Crooked Creek.

A public hearing addressing how a proposed 977-acre watershed lake would impact water quality drew only 10 citizens to the Thursday evening meeting. Mike Lee, an environmental specialist with the Natural Resources Section of the Tennessee Division of Water Pollution Control conducted the meeting at Huntingdon City Hall. The hearing was one of the final steps in the process to construct the proposed lake.

Only one person, Wesley Collins, spoke against the construction of the lake while one family, the Tippitts, expressed concern about the mitigation area.

Carroll County Watershed Authority filed an application with the U.S. Corp of Engineers to build the lake for recreation and industrial development. The proposed impoundment is along Reedy Creek in the Leech Community along S.R. 70. Some 9.2 miles of Reedy Creek and its tributaries will be flooded along with 119.25 acres of wetlands. Those wetlands are located in 64 separate locations. The project is expected to cost $10 million and will take up to three years to construct. Voters in Carroll County approved a $10 hike in the local wheel tax in a November 2000 referendum to fund the local portion of the costs to construct the lake. The vote was 5,441 to 4,851. The wheel tax will begin once the Corp of Engineers issues a 404 permit.

Lee said the State Division of Water Pollution Control conducted the hearing to gather information about water quality issues of the proposed impoundment and the proposed 300 acres of wetland mitigation proposed along Crooked Creek and Gwen Creek, where levees will be broken to flood the land. The Watershed Authority has proposed to purchase land between State Route 22 and State Route 77 to create the new wetland area during the mitigation process. Additionally, 2 miles of Crooked Creek will be restored to its original streambed, eliminating the channel that was created in the 1920s-1930s. Lee indicated that the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation was eager for that project to be implemented. "There is a lot of interest to reestablish flood plain hydrology. Hopefully this will be the first," said Lee.

Kevin Young, Senior Vice-President of the J.R. Wauford and Company, who are consulting engineers for the watershed project, said most creeks in West Tennessee had been channelized effectively making them ditches. Young said the search for a location for a watershed lake began in 1997. A total of 10 sites were investigated with the Leach site being the best option. Concerning the mitigation area, Young said the area will remove sediment and the entire area will be planted in trees and turned over to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency to manage. It will be monitored for five years to assure that it behaves as a wetland.

The Tippitt family that farms land adjacent expressed concern about the proposed mitigation area. They noted that the Crooked Creek bottom at "Mayo's Bottom" wasn't supposed to flood again when a sediment area was created. The highway was constructed in 1992 and has flooded at least three times since its construction. The Tippitts questioned if they could maintain ditches that drain their property onto the proposed mitigation area. Lee said that would have to be addressed.

"What if it doesn't work," questioned Glen Tippitt of the mitigation area.

Lee said, "It should be designed so that it works." He said the Watershed Authority would have to restore the area and go elsewhere for mitigation if the plan fails.

Concerning the impoundment, Lee said the State is concerned about the oxygen levels and the temperature of the water that would be discharged from the lake. Lee said that impoundments generally reduce the oxygen level and change the temperature of the water being discharged.

Young said the discharge water would be drawn from the lower, middle, and upper levels of water on the upstream side of the 50-foot dam. Oxygen will be replenished by spraying water into the air at the dam site. A monitoring station will be placed downstream of the proposed dam one year prior to construction of the dam. Once the dam is constructed, water quality will attempt to equal the quality prior to construction of the lake. Young said trees would be removed from the perimeter of the lake to prevent organic materials from being deposited in the lake. Decaying organic materials, such as leaves, deplete oxygen levels.

Wesley Collins was the lone person to voice his opinion against the lake. Collins indicated that the 977-acre lake would catch water from a drainage area of six square miles - an area only four times its size. That's insufficient to keep the lake filled. Collins said it would take 11 wells, 12" in size to fill the lake. That's enough water to serve five cities the size of Huntingdon, said Collins. He expressed concerns about the wells lowering the subsurface water table.

Young admitted that some of the wells might have to be continuously operated to maintain the prescribed downstream flow.

Collins said the mitigation area would convert productive cropland to a "mosquito palace" and be a haven for snakes. He illustrated his point by noting an article in The McKenzie Banner in which snakes swarmed an automobile that exited the roadway in the Obion bottom between McKenzie and Trezevant. Collins said the planted trees would die.

In conclusion, Collins said the area along State Route 22 was not expected to flood but has. He said the watershed project and mitigation is too big to reverse once complete.

Persons wishing to express an opinion concerning the water quality have 10 days following the Thursday hearing to express their concern.
     

Seven candidates filed petitions prior to the December 20 deadline for four aldermen positions on the Trezevant city board. An election will be held Tuesday, March 5 to fill three aldermen positions for four-year-terms and one alderman position for an unexpired two-year term.

Candidates for four-year terms are Bobby J. Blaylock, an employee with the Tennessee Department of Employment Security; Tommy Long, a truck driver; Bobby McAlexander, a fire protection specialist; James E. (Jim) Moore, an employee with the Tennessee Department of Transportation; and Frank Newsom, a Carroll County school bus driver. Blaylock, Long and Moore are incumbents. Moore, also an incumbent, is currently filling the unexpired term of Jana Chrisman, who resigned.

Two candidates vying for the unexpired two-year term made vacant by the resignation of Alderwoman Kim McCartney are Incumbent Joe F. Butler, who is presently filling her vacated position and newcomer Eddie Granger. Mr. Butler is retired and Mr. Granger is employed as a warehouse supervisor.

The last day a person may register to vote prior to the Trezevant election and be eligible to vote therein is February 1, 2002. The election commission office, located in the County Office Complex at 625 High Street, Suite 113, Huntingdon, is open Mondays through Fridays from 8:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.
    

Phone (731) 352-3323 or Fax (731) 352-3322
washburn@mckenziebanner.com