Water Resources: Hydraulics and Hydrology
works on it, but no storage for anything but flood control. It's suppose to be kept empty
all the time except for storing floods.
Well, they went up there for the annual inspection one time and found that the community
had closed the gate on the outlet works and filled up the reservoir with water and they
were using it for recreation. Everybody was swimming and boating and having a big
time, and there was no storage for control of floods. Obviously, the community didn't
understand how the project worked or were not paying any attention. They just thought,
"Well, this would be nice to fill it up for water and use it for recreation." So they did.
Q ..
Now, in a case like that, they have to empty that thing out, don't they?
A
Well, you see the Corps has a limited authority on what they can force the local
community to do. They write them a letter and tell them that they're not in compliance
with the rules and regulations for the way this project is supposed to operate. If they don't
take care of it, they write them a letter. They have at least an annual inspection where
they look at the project and check to make sure that it's being taken care of. Then they
write them a letter protesting things that haven't been done.
Many years ago, they didn't really have any legal authority to make this community
comply with those requests, other than the fact that the Corps would say, "Well, if you
ever need any other things from the Corps, why don't come looking to us because you're
not going to get them because we know from experience you don't cooperate.
It's been a few years back, they came up with these Section 221 agreements where the
community has to sign off and it's a legal binding obligation where they agree to do all the
things that the Corps says need to be done to operate and maintain this project. If they
don't do them, why the Corps can force them through the courts to comply with the
requirements. But I don't know that the Corps is--and they have yet to have their first
case where they actually force the community to do something.
But they bring a lot of pressure to bear on them now that they have this capability to go
to court and force them to do things. Usually, they can get them to comply by just telling
them that they're going to force them to do it, and then they comply. But they didn't have
that threat before that they could use.
So it was difficult in earlier times. They'd tell them, "Hey, you're not mowing the grass,
you're not cutting down the brush, and things like that." Or, "You're not repairing the
motors, they don't operate. You've got gates locked and there are no keys to the locks.
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