Apalachee River Residents Gather To Oppose New Intake Site

Residents living along the Apalachee River turned out in force on Sunday, producing a petition after nearly two hours of discussion with 73 names on it directed toward the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Petitioners are asking the Corps to hold a public hearing on a previously undisclosed decision by the Hard Labor Creek Regional Reservoir Management Board to move its planned intake site on the Apalachee River from High Shoals to several miles south in Morgan County.

The meeting on Sunday–held on the banks of the river at a farm off Gober Road–came about when a few residents received notices from the Corps about plans to build the intake facility on a 202-acre tract on High Shoals Road in Morgan County.

Residents at the Sunday meeting said the decision will adversely affect their quiet life styles and property values, and they complained about the initial decision to build the now-almost full Hard Labor Creek Regional Reservoir in southeastern Walton County.

The most common concern, however, was about the effects of the transfer of water from the Apalachee River to the reservoir.

The flow of water already is minimal, numerous speakers said, and the river cannot support a diversion of water to the reservoir on Hard Labor Creek.

That concern would have been just as real had the Management Board stuck with its plans to put the intake just above the power plant at High Shoals.

For more on the story, including a complete video of the meeting, go to Oconee County Observations.

Pictured, standing, left to right, Mark Saxon, Chuck Horton, Melba Cooper.