Toledo Bend
Bi-State
Alliance

October 10, 1998

The Toledo Bend Bi-State Alliance was formed in early 1998 to provide a voice representing residents, property owners, tourists, marina owners and other businesses in both Louisiana and Texas. This organization is an alliance composed of individual organizations including civic, property owners, Chambers of Commerce, Marina Owners and Fishing clubs. Present by-laws allow for non-voting individual membership.
Currently the Alliance is comprised of 21 member organizations and 9 individual non-voting members. Combined membership of these organizations exceeds 2,800, including our non-voting individual members.

The purpose of the Alliance is to enhance tourism, economic development, operation, maintenance and safety of Toledo Bend Reservoir as a recreational resource of the states of Louisiana and Texas. To assist local and state governments, including the Sabine River Authorities of Louisiana and Texas, in areas which may effect the development of Toledo Bend Reservoir as a recreational resource.

To accomplish our purpose, we choose projects which we believe will improve Toledo Bend. Each member organization votes to approve or disapprove any project. Once a project is approved by a majority of organizations, a plan is formed to pursue accomplishment, committees are formed etc., and the task is pursued to completion.
Our first project, which presently consumes most of our efforts, is having 168' mean sea level (msl) established as the minimum water level for routine power generation at Toledo Bend. Three exceptions are recognized to the 168' msl minimum. They are:

• To meet the minimum flow requirements for the Sabine River below Toledo Bend.
• When the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) requires the water level of the reservoir be lowered to inspect/repair the dam.
• To prevent an imminent brown out (after all interruptible power has been discontinued by the power companies).

To date our efforts have resulted in The Toledo Project Joint Operations Board commissioning Brown & Root to study the present and alternative Operating Guides for the reservoir. This study, completed in July, indicates while the present operating guide is not deficient, other operating guides could better meet the multiple purposes of the reservoir, e.g. hydroelectric power generation & recreation. Our organization has adopted resolutions supporting Simulation 6 of the Brown & Root study. Simulation 6 will stop routine generation at 168' msl, while producing more electricity on an annual average. Our organization has made several presentations to the Sabine River Authorities of Texas and Louisiana as well as to the Toledo Bend Project Joint Operations Board concerning this subject.

The FERC on July 31, 1998 sent a letter to the Sabine River Authorities of Louisiana and Texas requesting information as to how and if they were going to make changes to the operation of the reservoir based upon the Brown & Root study. The SRA reply states they do not plan to make any changes. The Alliance will soon reply to the information submitted by the SRA's and request the FERC order a change to the operation of the reservoir.

Two petition drives in 1997 & 1998 resulted, respectively, in over 6000 & 2000 individual signatures supporting our lake level goal. Those who signed the petitions were primarily from Louisiana and Texas. The governments of Sabine Parish, Sabine County, the cities of Many, La., Hemphill, TX., and Noble, La. have adopted resolutions in support of 168' msl as the minimum operating level for Toledo Bend.

We are presently pursing other efforts, including supporting a study of the economics and fisheries of the reservoir which was funded by the Toledo Bend Project Joint Operations Board and is being conducted by Dr. Ditton from Texas A&M University.
Another effort is a request to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to adopt a new Crappie fishing regulation to coincide with that of Texas. We believe that Crappie recovery will be better if the present Texas regulation is adopted for the reservoir. It will also ensure uniform reservoir regulation.

We have adopted a resolution to seek uniform boat lane markings by both Sabine River Authorities. We believe that boat lane marking can best be controlled by the Joint Operations Board. We have not pursued this goal as of this time.
The Toledo Bend Bi-State Alliance meets monthly at 6:30 PM on the fourth Monday of each month at the J.R. Huffman Library in Hemphill, Texas. The next meeting is scheduled for October 26, 1998.

Additional information concerning the Toledo Bend Bi-State Alliance is available by contacting Larry Kelly at (318)286-9946 or E-mail kellyle@worldnetla.net or Janna Lehman at (409) 625-3394 or E-mail at JustLikeHome@bigfoot.com. Information is also available on the internet at Toledo-Bend.com.