LUCEDALE, Mississippi -- The Pat Harrison Waterway District has submitted the 2,868-acre Lake George project, proposed in George and Jackson counties, to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and several state offices for permitting.
George County leaders would like to secure Restore Act, Hurricane Katrina-related grants and Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act funding to pay for the $80 million project.
To date, George County has received $3.5 million from the state for studies, design work and engineering on the lake.
The waterway district submitted the application in cooperation with the George County Board of Supervisors and Jackson County Board of Supervisors, according to George County officials.
The application for what's being dubbed a drought resiliency project to aid the Pascagoula River comes after three years of hydrologic and climate data collection and analysis.
Besides the Corps, the project plans were also sent to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources.
The 20-page application was supported by a 115-page environmental assessment, and the public may request the full application package from the Corps.
The Corps is likely to schedule a public meeting on the project in the coming weeks, leaders said.
"Right out of the gate everyone will notice, this is not your standard lake proposal," District 2 Supervisor Kelly Wright said. "This project addresses the long term needs of the area's water table and water flow levels on the Pascagoula River. The Lake George project has benefits for the entire region, not just one county."
This application proposes a lake project in southeast George County crossing between the Barton and Agricola communities.
The project consists of two lakes, an upper and lower lake, directly connected by Big Cedar and Little Cedar creeks.
The upper lake is 1,715 acres with a dam/spillway near Clarence Bonnett Road, and the lower lake is 1,153 acre with a dam/spillway just south of the Jackson County line.
The Corps of Engineers' summarized all of the application information in a five-page public notice that was published earlier this month.
It said there are about 1,200 acres of wetlands in the project area, and affected species could include the gopher tortoise, black pipesnake, yellow-blotched map turtle, and Louisiana quillwort.
The lower lake's dam is more than two miles northwest of the Pascagoula River's main trunk, county leaders said, and Big and Little Cedar creeks will continue flowing at normal levels during project construction.
No dams are proposed on the Pascagoula River, according to the county.
Opponents of the lake project say the proposed dams do amount to damming the Pascagoula River because they would impede the creeks that feed into it.
"The Pascagoula is more than the main trunk of the river," said Steve Shepard, with the local chapter of the environment-focused Sierra Club.
He also claimed the two lakes would struggle to stay full themselves, but he said he has only seen "vague maps" from the county and no other data.
County officials, however, say their data shows the lake project would raise the water table in George County and north Jackson County to help naturally maintain flows during droughts.
During low flow periods, they said, Lake George water would be released to flow approximately 2.5 miles down Big Cedar Creek into the Pascagoula River.
George County's Pat Harrison board member, Aubert Pitts, said the project will not affect the Pascagoula River's honorary title of "largest undammed, untamed river" in the continental U.S.
He said there are already hundreds of small dams and several major reservoirs on the Pascagoula River's tributaries.
"It's important to note, there are currently 10 reservoirs on the Pascagoula River's headwater tributaries which are over 100 acres in size," he said. "They range from the 3,800-acre Okatibbee Reservoir to the 125-acre Lake Perry in the Lower Leaf River watershed."
George County leaders and residents have been discussing a lake project for decades, but the original plan was strictly for a recreational project.
"The old one was going to be a lot smaller scale, mainly targeting recreation and a little bit of economic development," Wright said. "This lake here is a lot bigger in scale. A lake of that size will attract economic development, but that's not the main reason for putting the lake in."
The lake would attract people regionally, Wright said.
"They'll need campgrounds, motels, Walmart, gas stations, bait shops and more," he said. "They're going to impact almost every business here now but also give us a need for even more services."
Drought resiliency is the project's greatest benefit, Wright said.
During the Pascagoula River drought of 2000, river plants and animals were greatly affected, as were major industries downstream.
Many industries, such as Chevron's Pascagoula refinery, rely on the river for water that's used in their manufacturing and refining processes. In 2000, the industries had to greatly limit their water consumption.
Records show that since the drought of 2000, the river's flows briefly fell below the minimum flow set by MDEQ at the Merrill stream gauge in 2007, 2010 and 2011.
Several federal agency reports agree that climate change will cause more frequent, severe and longer droughts throughout the entire Pascagoula Basin, leaders said.
"Over the course of this application, we have come to realize the Pascagoula River is changing," Pat Harrison Waterway District Board President Don Pittman said.
"The data indicate low flow and drought conditions are going to become more frequent events," he said. "This project is a viable solution. Without some action, these droughts will dramatically impact the river's wetlands, threatened and endangered species' habitats, water quality and economic activities, including eco-tourism."
The Corps of Engineers will manage the permit process and is distributing the application and supporting materials to cooperating federal and state agencies and mailing out public notices to potentially impacted landowners.
"This is an extensive permit application with hundreds of pages of flow data from the Pascagoula River, Big and Little Cedar creeks, along with climate information collected and analyzed by Mississippi State University over three years," George County Board President Larry McDonald said.
There is a public comment period in effect now, and it may be extended.
"Several local groups have requested more time to review the research and data, (and) we understand this need," McDonald said.
The project will include one or two public recreational water parks, according to the federal application.
The water parks will be patterned after other Pat Harrison parks, which include amenities such as cabins, RV hookups, water slides, boat launches, shelters, lodge halls, nature trails and more.