Somerset and Burnside are moving ahead with plans to modify water intakes despite an announcement by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last week that Lake Cumberland will not be lowered further next year.

However, a spokesman for Winchester-based East Kentucky Power Cooperative, owner-operator of John Sherman Cooper Power Station at Burnside, said it will reevaluate part of its plans.

The Corps has advised some 11 communities along the lake as well as the Burnside power plant, to lower water intakes to level 650 by the end of the year. Wolf Creek Dam is leaking and a seven-year $309 million rehabilitation of the mile-long structure is under way.

Lake Cumberland was lowered in January to level 680, about 43 feet below summer pool, to ease pressure on the dam. The structure has been classified by an outside panel of experts as a high risk for failure. The directive to lower water intakes another 30 feet by the end of the year generated fears that the lake level might also be lowered next year.

The Corps has warned repeatedly that repair of the dam is risky and subject to crises. Intense grouting has been under way since December and a contract to extend a concrete diaphragm through the earthen section of the dam and 100 feet into the bedrock below the dam will be let late this year or early next year.

Mayor Eddie Girdler said Tuesday that Somerset will continue a $1.85 million project to lower the city’s water intake at Waitsboro to the 610-foot level, 48 feet lower than it is now.

Burnside Mayor Chuck Fourman was out of town when this story was written. However, he told the Commonwealth Journal Friday that the city plans to proceed with an emergency project to lower its water intake. Burnside has its own water treatment and distribution system.

Nick Comer, spokesman for East Kentucky Power Cooperative, said Tuesday afternoon that it will deploy barges at John Sherman Cooper Power Station at Burnside to assist with the cooling process “ ... but we need to reevaluate the cooling tower.”

In a statement released Friday, Comer said “ ... Cooper Station is critical to EKPC’s operations and to the regional transmission grid. It is crucial to EKPC, our members and ratepayers in 87 counties (including South Kentucky RECC members in Pulaski County), that we avoid any unnecessary costs. It is also crucial for EKPC to take steps to ensure that Cooper Station remains operational.”

The Public Service Commission has approved as many as seven supplemental pumps on a floating barge to supply cooling water to generator Unit No. 1 at Cooper Station. The barge, 600 feet farther out in the lake, will be connected to the current Intake No. 1 with floating plastic pipe to accommodate a changing lake level.

The approved plans call for Unit No. 2 at Cooper Station to utilize a cooling tower atop a concrete base like a swimming pool and would use basically the same water over and over again. The cooling water would be pumped to the top of the tower and cascade down on plastic trays. The tower would eliminate the need for the existing second intake system.

The proposed cooling system would use considerably less water than the current 150,000 gallons a minute. The reduction would be realized because of the “closed loop” cooling tower using the same water.

Comer said the barge mounted pumps will be installed to get cooler water from deeper in the lake. Because of the current lake level, the water is warmer and does not cool the generators as efficiently. As a result, he said, EKPC has had to buy $1.8 million in additional electricity in June because generators at Cooper Station could not be run at full capacity because of the warmer water. A similar amount of power was purchased in July, he said.

Girdler said Somerset officials met at lunch Monday with representatives of East Kentucky Power Cooperative, South Kentucky RECC, and other local interests to discuss the Corps’ recent decision to retain the current lake level through 2008.

“We decided to continue with the intake project since it would be impossible to react quickly in case of an emergency (at the dam),” Girdler said following the meeting. This decision was in line with advice from both the Corps and the governor’s office. The state has made $1.2 million available to lower Somerset’s intake at Waitsboro and the city will provide the remainder, about $565,000, Girdler said.

“There’s no way we could provide water to 100,000 people if the Corps had to lower the lake quickly,” said Girdler. In addition to supplying Somerset area residents with water, the city also provides water to most rural water districts and associations as well as the cities of Science Hill and Eubank.

Girdler said Somerset has already signed a contract with a marine construction firm in Nashville to lower the water intake at Waitsboro to 610 feet above sea level. The existing intake is at the 658-foot level, “ ... but we couldn’t pump that low,” said a spokesman at the water-treatment plant.

“Regardless of what the Corps does (during the dam repair period), we’ll have water,” said Girdler. He said the 610 level is basically in the river channel.

The modification project includes five barges, each some 60 feet long and 40 feet wide, all connected and anchored at the center of the lake at Waitsboro. Three pumps, each with a 3,500 gallon per minute capacity, will be installed on the barges, One of the pumps will be a backup to two pumps operating simultaneously, according to Charles Dick, manager of Somerset Water Service. “We’ll be pumping 7,000 gallons a minute,” he added.

An air-cooled and heated mechanical house will protect the pumps, Girdler said. He compared the system of barges to a bridge and said proper permitting and no-wake zones must be worked out with the Corps. Dick said the modified water intake system should be completed by mid-October.

Girdler said getting the project started has been delayed somewhat by a shortage of materials because of the war in Iraq. The mayor said it took six weeks to get electric cables and some of the equipment had to be custom built.

He predicted that construction of the new intake system could begin late this month or the first of September.