Regulators forced CWLP to comply with the law and study alternatives to the costly and destructive dam; as a result, we now know of better ways to get plenty of clean water to secure our future at far less cost. Old figures for the yields of the gravel lakes show “only” 4.8 MGD (enough, by the way, to meet the need, using CWLP’s own figures), but a newer study commissioned by CWLP itself showed it was actually 7.4 MGD now, and it costs just 41 percent of woefully underestimated costs for Hunter Dam. If wells are added to the gravel pits to get a total of 12 MGD, the cost is only 51 percent. Alternatives can be completed much more quickly than the minimum seven years for Hunter Dam (two years of studies, five years to build, assuming no litigation).
The problem is not “federal and state bureaucracy,” which has bent over backwards to give them a fourth chance to get it right. CWLP is unable to demonstrate need for the project, or, if a need is assumed, that Hunter Dam is the least costly, least destructive alternative. Three times they have tried to deceive federal and state regulators, and each time the regulators insisted on compliance with the law.
The most recent resuscitation of this backward boondoggle rests on the shoulders of Mayor Mike Houston, who advocates throwing good money after bad. For a supposed budget hawk bent on slashing waste, this drive to spend another million dollars for more studies over two years on a turkey project that will cost more than $100 million is incomprehensible, particularly when the city is broke and facing cuts in basic services. A responsible body politic would abandon Hunter Dam now, before we spend another $1 million we can’t afford on a project we’ve been told three times does not comply with law.
The new leadership at CWLP should recommend a more sensible approach, avoiding the waste of staff resources required to ride herd on $1 million in contracts fleeced from taxpayers for studies by firms that profit from building dams. They should pull the plug on Hunter Dam, and move ahead to the task of taking this proposed wasteful fiasco and turning it into a real prize, saving the land in case we really need a lake in 100 years, and preserving its rich history and enduring beauty for generations to come.
Don Hanrahan is a local attorney who was born and raised in Springfield. He has been active in opposing Hunter Dam since 1988. He was a presenter in the Citizens Club public debate on Hunter Dam and has been spokesperson for Citizens for Sensible Water Use for several years.
