A Conservancy Court ruling is expected by Aug. 20 on whether the projected benefits are greater than the anticipated costs in the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District’s (MWCD) proposed plan of maintenance for the region’s system of reservoirs and dams.
A ruling that supports the MWCD’s assertion that the benefits are greater than the costs of the projects in its plan will permit the Conservancy District’s Board of Directors to vote on levying an assessment on property owners to fund the maintenance work. The five-member Board of Directors was scheduled to meet Aug. 17, but that meeting will be rescheduled to a later date to be announced soon, said Darrin Lautenschleger, MWCD public affairs manager.
The MWCD asserts that billions of dollars of projected benefits will come from its plan as compared to the $210 million that is expected to be collected through the assessment of property owners over the next 20 years. Those collections and projects could begin as early as next year. The cost-benefit analysis and review by the Conservancy Court is a necessary process as detailed in the Ohio law that provides for the organization, operation and funding of conservancy districts.
During a hearing Wednesday (Aug. 1) in the Tuscarawas County Courthouse at New Philadelphia, evidence was presented by the MWCD to the Conservancy Court detailing the MWCD’s appraisal of benefits for the maintenance plan. The Conservancy Court, which by law has jurisdiction over the MWCD, consists of one common pleas court judge from each of the 18 counties in the MWCD region.
Witnesses testified that a whole range of benefits are received by the owners of property located within the MWCD region, including flood reduction, access, water quality, water supply, tourism spending impacts, land preservation, environmental quality and construction impact. Mike Lawrence, president of Jack Faucett Associates of Maryland, testified that benefits of the currently proposed maintenance plan outweigh the costs by a substantial ratio. Faucett compiled an independent benefit analysis of the MWCD’s Official Plan and its Amendment to the Official Plan that details the maintenance work proposed by the MWCD.
Lawrence testified that his analysis projects that more than $18 billion worth of benefits will be realized from the MWCD’s system from its inception through the next 50 years. The costs over that same time period are estimated at nearly $2.26 billion.
Coy Miller, project manager for the Huntington (W.Va.) District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), testified that the system of reservoirs and dams has prevented more than $2.5 billion worth of potential damage from flooding. The USACE owns and operates the dams in the Muskingum River Watershed, while the MWCD manages the reservoirs behind the dams where water is held temporarily for the safe release downstream.
Miller also testified about the maintenance needs for dam safety and dam safety assurance at several of the dams in the system. Four dams – Beach City, Bolivar, Dover and Mohawk – and one levee (Zoar) are in need of maintenance and major rehabilitation that could cost up to $680 million over the next several years, Miller said. The MWCD has committed to be the federally mandated local cost-share sponsor on those projects, which could cost up to $135 million.
The method of assessment also was reviewed by James Rozelle, MWCD chief engineer, and Thomas Roe, a member of the MWCD Board of Appraisers. By law, the MWCD Board of Appraisers develops the methodology of assessments for the conservancy district.
Rozelle, who also is the former general manager and chief engineer for the Miami Conservancy District in southwestern Ohio and is employed by a Cincinnati engineering firm that provides consulting services to the MWCD on the development of the assessment process, testified that various methods of assessment were reviewed and the method that eventually was selected was considered the most fair and equitable for property owners.
Roe testified that the MWCD Board of Appraisers believed that it should ensure that all prospective assessments are fair, and adopted various billing standards to do just that.
The MWCD, a political subdivision of the state, was organized in 1933 to develop and implement a plan for flood reduction and water conservation in the Muskingum River Watershed. By 1938, 14 reservoirs and dams were constructed. According to the MWCD’s plan, an estimated $10.5 million annually would be generated from property owners in the MWCD region for public health and safety projects to safeguard the system of reservoirs and dams.
In a study of the watershed, national, state and local experts and agencies identified more than $200 million worth of needed projects in the system that are the responsibility of the MWCD.
The MWCD reports that the assessment and projects, including partnering programs with the federal government and other agencies and participants, will begin as early as 2008. Most of the remaining work to be completed in the MWCD maintenance plan also would be cost-shared with other agencies and would lead to the protection and creation of jobs in the region.
The work plan details the estimated costs and locations for projects to be completed in many categories, including:
- Dam Safety and Dam Safety Assurance
- Flood Warning and Dam Operations System
- Debris removal in streams
- Road relocation and elevation
- Property boundary survey
- Dredging reservoirs
- Reduction of shoreline erosion
- Assist with solutions to hydrogen sulfide production at the reservoirs
- Water quality monitoring
- Correction of acid mine drainage issues
- Reservoir inspection and maintenance
The MWCD has projected that 94 percent of the estimated 500,000 parcels subject to the assessment would pay an annual fee of $12 per year. Projected assessments can be reviewed online at the MWCD website at www.mwcd.org, and the MWCD also can be contacted toll-free at (877) 363-8500.
The counties wholly or partially contained in the MWCD jurisdiction are Ashland, Belmont, Carroll, Coshocton, Guernsey, Harrison, Holmes, Knox, Licking, Morgan, Muskingum, Noble, Richland, Stark, Summit, Tuscarawas, Washington and Wayne.
### - END - ###
View more
press releases
Return to Main Page
