WATER WORRIES: Wading through the water issues

LITTLE ROCK — A comprehensive Lake Conway watershed study could begin as soon as spring 2010, focusing first on the issues of flooding and sedimentation buildup.

The Lake Conway Watershed Advocacy Group met Oct. 29 in Conway to discuss progress on two main issues: funding for the watershed study and funding for a road to Rodgers Estates subdivision near Mayflower. Cost for the watershed study is estimated at $400,000, and potential sources of funding have been located. Cost for the road has been estimated at $700,000 to $900,000, and the funding search is ongoing.

Wet weather has brought to the forefront several long-standing issues of contention with the lake, which is owned and managed by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Lake Conway shoreline homes have flooded repeatedly during the last year, especially in the spring.

However, when water is released from the lake into Palarm Creek, Grassy Lake Road floods, leaving the 20 families who live in Rodgers Country Estates without a way in or out. Another route through Camp Robinson closed to civilians after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. During high water, the Rodgers Estates residents access Interstate 40 via an illegal dirt on-ramp.

Game and Fish officials have said they’re between a rock and a hard place with the issue, forced to choose between flooding one group of people or the other.

In response to this year’s flooding, the Lake Conway Home Owners Association began meeting during the summer to aggregate resident concerns. District 42 Rep. Jane English, a Republican who is in her first term, picked up the issue, forming her Lake Conway Watershed Advocacy Group and bringing to the table everyone from the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Arkansas Department of Health, Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, Game and Fish Commission and political representatives from the state, county and local level.

The Oct. 29 meeting was the group’s third. Mark Oliver reported to the group on a subcommittee meeting held Sept. 22 at Conway City Hall. Oliver is chief of fisheries at the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. He recommended that funding for the watershed study come from Sport Fish Restoration Act funds, which come from fishing equipment taxes that are collected and administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The subcommittee considered another funding source through the Corps of Engineers, but decided on the Sport Fish Restoration Act funds because it requires a smaller local match (25 percent) and allows the local match to be in-kind donations such as materials and manpower. Oliver said that with the current attention to the issue, the potential for private contributions is high. He said that Mark Armstrong, assistant director of field services and former fisheries program coordinator, has recommended the Game and Fish Commission commit up to $200,000 toward the watershed study - pending the approval of the agency’s commissioners.

A Corps representative, Dana Coburn, said the Corps will remain involved in the project, possibly providing in-kind support. It has jurisdiction over Palarm Creek.

The Lake Conway Watershed Advocacy Group is not a formal governing body, so there was no official vote on the issue. Marsha Guffey of Metroplan led the meeting and took an informal head count. The majority of those in attendance were in favor of using the Sport Fish Restoration Act funds.

Oliver said the main issues any watershed study should address are: flood control, sedimentation, vegetation and water quality. The study would take in the whole Lake Conway watershed, which extends as far as communities like Vilonia and Conway, where growth has increased the amount of concrete, thereby decreasing the amount of water that soaks into the ground. More water ends up in Lake Conway, bringing along silty deposits that cause sedimentation buildup.

By using the Sport Fish Restoration Act funds, Oliver said work on the study can begin by spring and could be divided into parts if needed. He said the issues of flooding and sedimentation are most pressing and should be studied first. He said the $400,000 figure is a very rough estimate.

“The flooding issue and sediment, they kind of go hand in hand because as the lake gets shallower, it holds less water,” Oliver said. “That has a lot of implications for the whole gamut of what we’re talking about (excess vegetation and water quality) and it affects fish management, too.”

Funding for a new road for the Rodgers Estates residents is less clear. The issue was also discussed in the Sept. 22 subcommittee meeting.

“Right now we don’t have anything hard and firm on that area,” Guffey said.

The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department has estimated the road would cost $700,000 to $900,000. The issue is complicated by the fact that Rodgers Estates lies in Pulaski County, while the flooded road is in Faulkner County.

Faulkner County Judge Preston Scroggin said the county has set aside $100,000 from next year’s budget for the project. He said state officials, including English, District 30 Sen. Gilbert Baker, Gov. Mike Beebe, District 31 Sen. Mary Anne Salmon and others have set aside about $97,000 that will be available in the next month or so. Oliver said the Game and Fish Commission would offer $100,000, pending commissioner approval, if the project gets closer to receiving the rest of the funding. The funds would come from the Marine Fuel Tax.

Scroggin said he has about run out of people to call and places to look, but will continue trying.

“We’re going to be looking at a pretty big chunk of cash,” Scroggin said. “It’s a pretty daunting task to go through those wetlands.”

Others said there may still be hope for funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Economic Development Administration. English said it is unlikely the military will offer any funding.

Pulaski County Quorum Court officials have not been involved in the Advocacy Group so far.

“We’ve got a whole vegetable soup of people that’s working on this thing,” Scroggin said. “Slowly but surely we’ve started pulling together. I hope Pulaski County will step in soon.”

Students from the University of Central Arkansas were at the meeting and said they are interested in doing a water-quality study that could be paired with the overall watershed study. English said a group from Arkansas Tech University in Russellville has expressed interest in doing a sedimentation study.

English cited the student groups as an example. She hopes the issue will continue to attract attention and more groups will get involved. She said the issue is too big to be addressed by one agency or group.

“Everybody has a part to play with solving problems,” English said. “That’s what communities do.”

In 2003, Rodgers Estates residents, the Game and Fish Commission, the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, the Arkansas National Guard and the governments of Pulaski and Faulkner counties built the Grassy Lake Road bridge that crosses Palarm Creek near Interstate 40. According to an Arkansas Game and Fish Commission press release from the time, Rodgers Estates residents raised $60,000 for the bridge and the Game and Fish contributed $242,000. The other groups made in-kind donations: materials and manpower.

Lake Conway was built in 1951 to be managed for fishing and recreation. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission owns a buffer strip of about 20 feet around the shoreline. The spillway used to manage lake levels is not automatic and must be opened by hand. Matt Horton manages Lake Conway as well as other Game and Fishlakes in central Arkansas.

In addition to those already mentioned, the meeting was attended by representatives from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, FTN Associates, Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, Lake Conway Home Owners Association, Rodgers Estates residents and the Arkansas Department of Health.

The next meeting, which is also open to the public, will be 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010, at the Faulkner County Natural Resource Center, 100 S. Amity Road in Conway. The focus will be wastewater and sanitation issues.

More information, including meeting minutes, are available at the Home Owners Association Web site, www.lc-hoa.org.

River Valley Ozark, Pages 61 on 11/05/2009

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