Hard Labor Creek Regional Reservoir Board Votes To Move Forward With Construction Of Apalachee River Intake Facility

The Hard Labor Creek Regional Reservoir Management Board finds itself in a difficult position.

The reservoir in southeast Walton County is filling quite nicely, the Board was told at its meeting late last month.

Neither Walton County nor Oconee County, partners in the project, needs the water from the reservoir, however, and it will be five or more years before the Board is expected to build a treatment plant and distribution system for that water.

At the same time, the Board is being asked to move forward on the next, expanded phase of the project that won’t be needed until at least 2030. If it doesn’t act, it will lose its federal permit to withdraw water from the Apalachee River.

The Board voted at the meeting to go forward with three contracts totaling $48,583 for the Apalachee River intake facility, and it also decided to spend $84,000 for soil borings and geotechnical study of the future water treatment plant site.

For more on this story, go to Oconee County Observations.

Pictured: Jimmy Parker, project manager.