Last night the Decatur City Council again discussed Decatur’s water issues. The ongoing dredging progress which has been disappointingly drudging along for the past few years, with the use of a skeleton crew of city workers was under scrutiny. It was estimated, at the time the previous council voted to use city workers to do dredging work on Lake Decatur, that approximately 300 acre feet of silt would be removed per year, however the real number has fallen well below that at about 170 acre feet. About 110 acre feet of silt wash into the lake each year, so the crew is barely making much headway.
The city crew has been plagued by staffing issues, broken equipment, parts delays and other unforeseen difficulties. However, a representative of the workers spoke to the council and disputed some of the numbers and doubted whether a professional firm would be able to do much better. For instance, some basins of the lake have several tree stumps and other debris which makes it more difficult to dredge. It’s estimated that a professional dredging company could remove as much as 600 acre feet of silt per year. It may be hard to tell if we’re actually comparing apples to apples in the estimated progress a professional firm could do in comparison with an expanded city workforce. It would depend which basin of the lake we’re talking about. Basin 1 is fairly clear of stumps and debris and would be much easier to dredge; other basins may not go so smoothly. At any rate, the city council advised city staff to move ahead with option 4, which would hire an outside firm to more quickly do the work. The project is expected to take five years.
However, the question of selling city owned dredging equipment came up. Larry Foster very much supported the idea; Pat Laegeler showed a bit of reluctance. Laegeler was on the previous city council which approved the city taking over dredging operations because he believed that dredging would be a “forever project.” Personally, I think it would be wise for the city the keep its dredging equipment because it will forever be an ongoing maintenance issue, considering 110 acre feet of silt wash back into the lake each year.
It was also decided last night that the option of using the city’s lowest water intakes during a drought wouldn’t be cost effective. The water treatment facilities that the city currently operates would not be capable of filtering such murky, muddy water. The water would be unfit for drinking without a boil order. The council will now look at horizontal wells below the dam as its next option to increase Decatur’s water supply during a severe drought.
