MWCD to Increase Public Awareness Efforts

State legislators heard a plan for an intensified public information campaign and a pledge from the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District to seek final approval of its assessment proposal later than originally planned during a meeting Thursday at the Statehouse.

At the meeting held by Ohio Senate President Bill M. Harris, legislators from the MWCD region were informed that the Conservancy District agrees that more information is needed by the general public and officials about the MWCD’s 20-year, $270-million maintenance and improvement plan for the reservoirs and dams in the Muskingum River Basin.

John M. Hoopingarner, MWCD executive director/secretary, provided details and answered questions about the MWCD, the planned maintenance and improvement projects and the details about the proposed assessment to be levied on owners of property in the 18-county watershed region to fund the work. Hoopingarner stressed during the two-hour meeting that the MWCD will vigorously work to inform residents of the watershed about the critical needs of the system of 14 reservoirs and dams through a stronger public information effort, promotion of the MWCD’s toll-free hotline and website for questions – (877) 363-8500 and www.mwcd.org – and meetings with public officials and residents to discuss issues.

Hoopingarner also said that the MWCD will not provide a final presentation for approval of the assessment plan to the Conservancy Court until August. It originally had been scheduled for June.

“We believe these steps will increase public understanding and support of the assessment and will clearly show the necessity of acting by early fall,” Hoopingarner said. “It will invite and encourage local public input to be involved and participate in the process.

“Any additional postponement of the assessment will – at a minimum – threaten our federal funding and could delay the plan to the point where lives and property are unnecessarily put into jeopardy.”

Four of the dams in the system – Beach City, Bolivar, Dover and Mohawk – are in such need of repair that the system cannot be operated at full capacity, Hoopingarner said. An additional $10 million in potential damage from flooding is being risked each year until those dams are repaired, he said.

Sen. Harris recently requested MWCD officials to provide more details about the plan and to proceed more slowly until the information could be distributed and analyzed.

Since its inception, the MWCD system of reservoirs and dams has prevented more than $6 billion worth of potential property damage from flooding, according to federal government estimates. An independent study of the potential benefits of the MWCD maintenance and improvement plan estimates that once enacted, the region will receive about $2.5 billion in future benefits compared to its initial $270-million investment. The plan also will lead to the protection and creation of much-needed jobs with contracts enacted with private firms for much of the work.

Projects that have been identified to be addressed over the 20-year time period include working with the federal government for dam safety improvements, as well as work on sediment removal, shoreline protection, water quality improvements, watershed management and reservoir operations. The MWCD manages the reservoirs behind the dams in the system, while the federal U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates the dams.

MWCD officials have been discussing the plan and developing details of the assessment proposal since 2003, when the Court authorized work to begin.

For more information, visit www.mwcd.org on the Internet.