By BILL MARDIS Editor Emeritus
Local communities that use water out of Lake Cumberland are being advised to modify water intakes by December for a lake level of 650 feet, or 30 feet lower than it is now.
Stan Cave, Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s chief of staff, made the announcement yesterday to a meeting of the executive committee of the Lake Cumberland Area Development District in Russell Springs.
Bill Peoples, chief of public affairs for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Nashville District, confirmed that a letter has been prepared to inform water users along Lake Cumberland of the possibility that the lake might go lower next year.
“I know the letter was being prepared ... I don’t know if it has left the house (Corps) yet,” said Peoples, speaking from his Nashville District office.
Cave said 203,000 people get drinking water from Lake Cumberland. “This is a challenge ahead of us,” he said. “We take this very, very seriously because we care.”
Cave was in Russell Springs with Fletcher meeting with mayors and county judge-executives from the 10-county Lake Cumberland region. A dozen cabinet members flanked the governor during the hour-long session at the LCADD offices.
Fletcher assured local officials that state government is working with them to build the infrastructure needed if the water level of Lake Cumberland were to be dropped another 30 feet. He said a limited amount of money already has been set aside to assist cities and counties. The governor said he will ask the General Assembly for more, even if he has to call a special session.
Somerset Mayor Eddie Girdler told the Commonwealth Journal earlier this month that he will ask Somerset City Council to set aside $1 million to prepare Somerset Water Service for an extremely low level of the lake.
Mark David Goss, chairman of the Kentucky Public Service Commission, said his agency is working with East Kentucky Power Cooperative, owner of John Sherman Cooper Power Station at Burnside, to prepare for further lowering of the lake.
Goss said “673 is the magic number,” alluding to the water intakes at John Sherman Cooper Power Station. “At 673 (feet above sea level) the pumps are sucking air and the plant shuts down,” he noted.
The Public Service Commission chairman pointed out that the John Sherman Cooper plant produces 341 megawatts of power daily. This, he said, equates to providing electricity to 200,000 homes or an estimated 400,000 people.
“This (shutting down John Sherman Cooper plant) is not going to happen!” Goss declared. He said options include extending the intake pipes approximately 700 feet to the river channel or preparing special barges to support pumps. Other options include a cooling tower that would take two years to design and build “and we don’t have that kind of time,” and construction of a cofferdam, according to Goss.
Water from Lake Cumberland cools the coal-fired generators at John Sherman Cooper plant. It takes 150,000 gallons a minute to do the job.
Goss said the biggest challenge is finding pumps strong enough to lift that much water another 20 feet from the lake to the plant. The barge option would reduce that load, he indicated.
John Sherman Cooper plant produces 12 percent of East Kentucky’s power portfolio. A shutdown of the plant, in the worst case scenario, would mean rolling blackouts, he noted.
“East Kentucky is already working on the problem,” Goss assured.
Gov. Fletcher yesterday morning named Hilda Legg, former executive director of The Center for Rural Development, as executive director for interagency services in the Lake Cumberland Region. Legg will have an office in Somerset and serve as a liaison between local communities and agencies of state government.
The theme that permeated yesterday’s session in Russell Springs was a voiced commitment by all agencies of state government to assist local communities around Lake Cumberland.
