Hard Labor Creek Reservoir Board Sought Waiver Of Public Hearing

Consultants for the Hard Labor Creek Regional Reservoir project asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in July of 2017 to bypass the public hearing process and allow construction of an intake facility on the Apalachee River to pump water to the reservoir in the future.

The Corps indicated that it would reject the request for a waiver of a public hearing process in August of last year.

That was before the Hard Labor Creek Regional Reservoir Board and the Walton County Water and Sewer Authority learned that the intake facility proposed to the Corps and included in the original permit was not workable and that an alternate site would have to be found for the intake.

The Corps issued a Public Notice on Feb. 20 of this year seeking public comment on the desired permit modifications by the end of the day on March 22.

Citizens were allowed to ask for a public hearing on the request for an extension of the permit from Feb. 28, 2019, to Feb. 28, 2021, and on the request for approval of a modification of the permit moving the intake facility from Walton County to a 202-acre-tract in Morgan County.

For more on the story go to Oconee County Observations.

Pictured: Rendition of an intake facility.