The Carroll County Lake: A Dream Realized
Part one of a two-part series

Ernie Smothers
Staff Reporter / Sports

 

Newly-Constructed Carroll County Lake Dam. Contractors from Franks Construction Company of Savannah, Tenn. use earth-moving equipment to construct the earthen and concrete dam parallel to Highway 70 three miles south of Huntingdon.
 

Construction crews with heavy earth-moving equipment buzz around the new 1,000-acre recreational watershed lake in the Leach Community of Carroll County as the dream for the recreational lake becomes a reality.

In 2000, the people of Carroll County approved a $10 annual wheel tax to pay the local share of the project. It is projected that in the year 2012, citizens and visitors will be enjoying the large pool of water on Reedy Creek through fishing, skiing, swimming, and picnicking.

The process has taken more than two decades of planning, engineering, legislation, regulatory hurdles, grants, and loans. Local planners saw the original idea of a watershed lake along Beaver Creek evaporate after regulations rejected the plan. The Carroll County Commission and the Tennessee General Assembly approved the expansion of the Beaver Creek Watershed Authority to the Carroll County Watershed Authority, clearing the way for the lake to be constructed anywhere in Carroll County.

According to the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce, developers are eagerly awaiting the completion of the lake.

The new lake will open doors for the economic development, especially in tourism, which will reap benefits to the people of Carroll County for many years. Brad Hurley, president of the Chamber said he has been shocked in the amount of interest in the new lake. In recent months, he has had developers from Massachusetts and California visit the lake site. "It's a bigger project that we might have imagined," said Hurley.

The Beginning

In 1984, then-Tennessee House of Representatives member Dale Kelley, along with other concerned Carroll Countian's, formed the Beaver Creek Watershed Authority (BCWA) for the purpose of getting a recreational lake built in Carroll County. That year, Kelley successfully sponsored legislation in the House of Representatives clearing the way for BCWA to search for land to be utilized for recreational lake construction.

On June 9, 2000, State Representatives Maddox and Phelan, at the request of members of the BCWA, introduced into the Tennessee General Assembly Public Acts, 2000 Chapter 958 House Bill 3334 substituting for Senate Bill 3317 by Senator Carter seeking to amend TCA Title 64, Chapter one, Part 8, calling for the deletion of words "Beaver Creek Watershed Authority" and replacing them with the words "Carroll County Watershed Authority" (CCWA). Passed on June 9, the bill was approved as law on June 23.

Upon researching and testing land proposed by CCWA located parallel to U.S. Highway 70 near the community of Leach just outside of the Huntingdon city limits, the state legislature, citing concerns regarding potential quantity of wetlands displacement, approved legislation prohibiting BCWA from receiving needed construction permits.

Kevin Young, Senior Vice-President and engineer for J.R. Wauford & Company, stated during an interview with The McKenzie Banner, "Our engineering firm was contacted at that time by Huntingdon Mayor and CCWA Secretary / Treasurer Dale Kelley. He enlisted us to find out why their permit request failed. Early on, we determined through geological map research and site ground testing that the area in and around the proposed lake construction site was a wetland up through the 18th century."

A Plan Conceived

He continued, "Going back to the drawing board, we knew in order for us to continue working toward receiving a permit to build the lake at the proposed site, we had to come up with a plan that would satisfy the demands of the United States Corp of Engineers, State Department of Environment and Conservation and numerous other agencies and their different agendas and regulations impacting streams, wetlands and wildlife preservation. We knew we had had to give them a project they would like and want to support."

He said, "We orchestrated an open meeting and got all the regulators together in one room and asked them what they had to have and found a way to make it work so that all of their demands were satisfied. It wasn't easy, but we dealt with each demand one at a time and found a way to satisfy everyone. We got the permit to build the lake in its present site by building relationships with people inside each agency and asking questions. In doing so, we found out what they needed from us and set out to satisfy their needs."

Based on the regulatories responses, Young and the CCWSA formulated a unique mitigation project to restore 2.4 miles of Crooked Creek to its original meandering stream bed allowing for the creation and reclaimation of 300 acres of former wetlands to replace wetlands displaced at the lake site.

Crooked is Best

Crooked Creek, located between SR22 and SR77 had been straightened in a failed attempt to improve the stream. Young said, "In the early 1900s, creek and stream channel straightening project was enacted. The project turned out to be a bad idea. A lot of erosion and flood damage resulted in later years."

Young noted that although all but 500 feet of the mitigation project is built, the site is currently not in service.

He said, "We plan to put water in the creek next summer and plant 300 acres of hardwood trees indigenous to wetlands the following winter. We have to prove over a three-year period to the Tennessee Department of Conservation that the mitigation site will function as wetlands. After that, we will deed the property over to the Tennessee Wildlife Agency."

He concluded, "I believe that the mitigation project will prove to one of the most successful sites of its kind constructed in the southeast."

The Last Hurdle

On Monday, November 20th, 2002, CCWA announced the receipt of the long anticipated Section 404 Permit from the United States Army Corps of Engineers allowing for the construction of a then 977-acre recreational lake in Carroll County near the Leach Community.

During the 404 Permit announcement ceremony, CCWA Secretary-Treasurer and Huntingdon Mayor Kelley said, "The receipt of the 404 Permit marks an end of an 18-year journey to reach this stage in the process."

CCWA Chairman Tommy Surber added, "We are excited to finally have the 404 permit in hand. The Watershed Authority wishes to express its appreciation to all the federal, state and local government agencies, our consulting engineers J.R. Wauford and Company and to all of the individuals involved in making this day a reality.