EPA Forbids Progress On Fayette County Reservoir.

EPA: Hey, river creatures need fresh water more so than people.


After 20 years of work and a recent $6 million appropriation from U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, it appeared that a long-sought-after reservoir for Fayette County would finally come to fruition. However, the Environmental Protection Agency, which oversees the funding, has put a halt to the project.

“Basically, the EPA is unwilling - according to them, unable - to allow the project to proceed, absent a current environmental impact statement,” said Fayette County Probate Judge William Oswalt, who has worked on the project since the push for a reservoir began in 1989.

“They want us to start all over again on the permit process, and because of the Nov. 15 deadline, we can’t do that,” he said. “We are in a catch-22 because we have an authorization from one federal agency, but another federal agency - the one that holds the funds - insists on an environmental impact statement.”

An environmental impact study was performed between 1992 and 1994, but because of regulation changes, the EPA says it cannot release the federal funds without a new study. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted a permit for construction of the dam after the initial study was completed. It expires Nov. 15 and cannot be extended, Oswalt said.

Even though the county has had the permit in hand for years, it has been unable to proceed with the $30 million project because it did not have enough money. The county had managed to set aside $10.5 million in local money and had $2 million in federal dollars; the $6 million appropriation from Shelby would have been enough to make it feasible to go forward.

Now, because of the time needed for a comprehensive environmental impact study and the Corps of Engineers deadline, starting work on the 1,977-acre reservoir will be impossible.

“When Sen. Shelby provided the special appropriations grant, we assumed that the money would be made available for the project, but we assumed incorrectly, because of regulatory hurdles that cannot be met, and certainly cannot be met by Nov. 15,” Oswalt said.

“It’s a heartbreaker. We’ve been working on this for a number of years,” he said. “It’s a much-needed project. It’d be a benefit to all of West Alabama.” Construction on the first phase of the project, building an earthen dam, was planned for this month, said Jason Walker of Tuscaloosa’s Almon Associates Inc., the project’s consulting engineer. Land acquisition and clearing would have followed, Walker said.

The reservoir would have provided a reliable source of water for residents and businesses in the county, as well as recreational activities. The town of Berry, a couple of miles south of the reservoir site, would have been one of the major beneficiaries of the project, Berry Mayor Roy Dobbs said.

“I’m very disappointed to say the least because I’ve been optimistic for the past 20 years. Over and over, we’ve been shot down by so many people and helped by so few, and Sen. Shelby’s been a friend,” said Dobbs, who has been mayor of Berry for 18 years. “We finally just about got a handle on how we were going to pay for it, got the money lined up.”

There are still areas in Fayette County where residents do not have access to clean drinking water, making it hard to attract new residents and industries, he said. Having the lake could have encouraged growth, similar to that around Lake Tuscaloosa.

“My philosophy is this: We need to find ways to get it done, instead of finding ways not to do it,” Dobbs said. “Somewhere down the road we have to decide, are we going to protect the people, or are we going to protect the snail darters and freshwater mussels?”