Water Rights Make Apalachee Intake Sites Not Feasible

The Walton County Water and Sewer Authority asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to modify its permit for an intake facility on the Apalachee River after determining that not only its original site but three of its four alternatives are not feasible.

Rights to the water that the Water and Sewer Authority wanted to withdraw from the original and the three alternate sites are protected under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission permit for a power plant located on the river just upstream from the SR 186 bridge over the Apalachee River.

The fourth alternate site, just downstream from the bridge, is not being pursued because it also is owned by the power plant operator.

As a result of the rejection of its original site and four alternates, the Authority is asking the Corps to change its permit for the intake to specify a location on the Apalachee River in Morgan County about two miles south of the original site.

The Authority wants to build the intake facility so it can convert the Hard Labor Creek Regional Reservoir in southeastern Walton County at some point in the future to a pump-storage facility by replenishing water in the reservoir with water from the Apalachee River.

Walton and Oconee counties are partners on the Hard Labor Creek Regional Reservoir project, though the permit for the intake is held by the Walton County Water and Sewer Authority.

The Corps has issued a Public Notice on the request by the Authority for modification of the permit to specify a new intake site and to extend the permit to Feb. 28, 2021, and is seeking public comment on the two requests.

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

Pictured: Four Original Alternate Sites.