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Toledo Bend BI State Alliance Meeting
August 27, 2001
The Meeting was called to order by Larry Kelly
The minutes of the previous meeting were read. Joe Goodson corrected the minutes to reflect that he as well as others discussed the collaborative process. The minutes were approved as corrected.
The treasurer reported that the bank account stood at $2536.66.
No DETDA report was presented.
Region I report was given by Bill Heugel. The region plans to ask each of the entities what the cost is for meeting the water supply demands and how they intend to fund the projects. The primary purpose of the effort is to determine how much the entities are expecting the State of Texas to fund.
Collaborative Process
The confidentiality agreement has been signed by participating parties. From this point on information released in the meetings cannot be divulged to the Bi- State Alliance until a tentative agreement is reached.
The tentative agreement, once reached, will be brought back to our membership for ratification before it is signed
The trial of the 35 lawsuits associated with the downstream flooding will get underway Oct 9th, 2001. This is the first time these suits will be heard in a State Court.
The drawdown,
Five letters opposing the drawdown have been placed on the FERC web site. Additional letters will be added questioning the amount of drawdown for the required repairs to the dam.
The first generator will be shut down for repairs on 14 Sept. Until that time the SRA will be running both generators 24 hours per day. The plan is to take the lake to 165 ft MSL or lower to make repairs to the dam face. This repair and level should only be required this year and not two years as had initially been requested. The FERC engineer will be present to assist in inspection of the dam and will not allow the level to be lowered more than is required to make the repairs.
Copies of the letter from the FERC responding to the SRA request will be posted on the BI State Alliance Web site.
It is estimated that the repairs to the face of the dam will take about 2 weeks.
Bi-State Alliance Objectives.
Joe Goodson passed out and discussed a paper outlining objectives, challenges, and options for the Bi-State Alliance. He requested feedback on how to proceed.
A discussion of the need to have representation from Sabine County on the SRA of TEXAS board was discussed. Suggestions included writing a letter to the governor.
Joe provided his email at goodson@sabinenet.com. He also provided his phone number for suggestions and discussions.
Required Drawdowns
The LA Engineer from the SRA of LA has indicated that it is not necessary to draw the lake to the 165 level every 5 years as has been previously stated. He indicated the FERC will inspect the dam at whatever level the lake is at the time of the inspection.
A discussion of the need to inform the public of the activities and objectives of the BI-State Alliance was conducted. Newspaper articles and a booth at the Deer fest were included in the discussion.
A motion was made seconded and passed to pay $126.51 for ink and binder expenses.
The meeting was adjourned.
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