Gainesville City Council has asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to cut out a key part of Hall County’s proposal to build Glades Reservoir: Cedar Creek Reservoir.

The county plans to use Cedar Creek, an existing reservoir in the Oconee River basin, in tandem with Glades.

If the county’s proposal is approved by the corps, Cedar Creek would serve as the distribution point for water coming from Glades and the Chattahoochee River.

But as the city and the county haven’t agreed on the existing reservoir’s future, the city wants the corps to amend those plans, according to a March 1 letter signed by all five members of City Council.

The corps is currently taking comments on the county’s proposal. Corps officials plan to use the comments to direct their evaluation of plans to dam up Flat Creek, creating an 850-acre reservoir that could provide as many as 80 million gallons of water a day to Hall County.

The corps recently sent the city’s letter to the county, asking county officials to respond to the claims, said chairman of the Hall County Board of Commissioners, Tom Oliver.

The county has not yet decided how it will respond, Oliver said.

“We’ll be prepared to do that,” Oliver said. “I don’t think any one individual is prepared to answer any questions about the letter.”

The letter underlines the city and the county’s ongoing dispute over future control of Cedar Creek Reservoir and the ramifications of an agreement the two governments made in 2006.

The agreement was a lease-purchase contract, handing over the assets and debt of the old Hall County water system, including Cedar Creek Reservoir, to the city. Under the terms, the city gains ownership of 1/25 of the assets each year.

The city says it will be majority owner of Cedar Creek by 2019.

“Hall County’s proposal for the Glades project will need to be revised to exclude the Cedar Creek Reservoir unless other arrangements can be made between the city and the county..,.” the city’s letter states. “Gainesville has already invested substantial sums to integrate Cedar Creek into its own system pursuant to this agreement, and Gainesville has not (word italicized and underlined) agreed to the county’s alternative proposal.”

The city and the county have been, for at least three years, trying to come to terms over Cedar Creek. In mid-February, the two decided to push off negotiations over who will control the 141-acre reservoir until the corps issues a court-ordered report on how much water in Lake Lanier can be used for water supply.
Much of Gainesville’s future as a water purveyor depends upon what that report says.

City officials have concerns that the Glades proposal, if interpreted as a joint city-county project, might cause the corps to reduce the city’s access to Lanier.

Another city motive for sending the letter to the corps, according to Gainesville Mayor Danny Dunagan, was to ensure that the corps knew Glades was not a city project.

“We just wanted the corps to know that it’s not a Gainesville application,” Dunagan said. “It’s a comment period, and we just need the corps to see where we stand.”

City officials point out in the letter, however, that they don’t oppose the county’s proposal to build Glades Reservoir.

“We support Glade Farm, but we feel like Glade Farm and Cedar Creek are two different issues,” Dunagan said.

But in the county’s proposal, Cedar Creek and Glades work together.

Oliver calls Cedar Creek “a tremendous asset” in the county’s plans to build Glades Reservoir.

“I can’t argue with what their position is,” Oliver said, in reference to the city’s letter. “Our position is: there’s still a lot of unknowns … and the people of Hall County have a tremendous investment in Cedar Creek.”

Juliet Cohen, legal counsel for the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, said the city’s letter wasn’t a surprise, since “the county and the city have a history of noncooperation in terms of water supply.”

What does surprise Cohen, she said, is that the county’s proposal assumes the city’s cooperation.

Cohen said she knows others who are paying attention to the Glades project who believe that the city is on board with all the county’s plans.

The letter shows otherwise and raises questions for Cohen about the future use of Glades without the city’s buy-in.

“Without Cedar Creek Reservoir, Glades is not really a water supply reservoir...” she said. “It’s premature (for the county) to promote it when not all of the players who are critical are at the table.”