OKTIBBEHA COUNTY – While the county once hoped to have a clear path for repairs of the Oktibbeha County Lake dam by December, supervisors are still awaiting approved engineering plans before making a decision about their options.
But whether the project can move forward also hinges on federal grant funding – which is in limbo and could send the county back to the drawing board if it doesn’t come through.
The county board acknowledged a finalized inspection of the Oktibbeha County Dam during its March 3 meeting, painting a grim picture of sinkholes, cracks, eroded sides and mudslides. But Marvell Howard, District 3 supervisor and president of the board, told The Dispatch he isn’t sure when a decision would be made on how to move forward.
“We’re still working through the process,” he told The Dispatch on Tuesday. “There are several (regulatory) entities involved that have to sign off on the different proposals. …The engineering firm would submit proposals to those entities, and I don’t (know whether they’re submitted those proposals yet). … We can’t make a motion of intent to do something that would possibly need to be approved.”
The engineering firm in question, WSP USA, declined to comment by press time.
The dam has had structural problems since it was built in 1965, which led to it almost breaching fully and forcing a mass evacuation in 2020. The county pumped water out of the lake and relieved pressure on the dam, but in the process sparked a civil suit with a water park that continues to this day.
Since then, the county has conducted several studies and blueprint developments and is considering options to repair or decommission the lake, with a Sept. 30 public meeting outlining three paths forward. Repairing the dam to a moderate-hazard lake height is estimated to cost $5.4 million, while a high-hazard lake height is estimated to cost $11.2 million. Decommissioning the lake entirely would cost $8.1 million in road rerouting and material clearing.
But without finalized plans from WSP USA, Howard isn’t willing to commit to any of those options. District 1 Supervisor Ben Carver and District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer similarly did not have any concrete plans to proceed when speaking with The Dispatch on Tuesday.
Further muddying the waters is the state of federal funding, which under the Trump administration has seen grants for Columbus airport doors and windows canceled by executive orders against DEI.
Supervisors were relying on a grant from the National Watershed Rehabilitation Program to pay for the dam project, but that program is funded by the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service. The county was promised grant funding in 2022.
Olguy Louis, Mississippi’s watershed program manager for the NRCS, told The Dispatch on Tuesday that the agency had effectively gone dark, making no public statements and answering no questions about its many programs.
Louis said President Donald Trump’s administration is at the root of the shift, with USDA leadership performing a comprehensive inventory of its programs to determine if NRCS is in compliance with the priorities of the new executive branch.
“At this time I can’t comment on that,” he said. “I wish I had more details for you, but the only thing I can say is on the whole, things are under federal review by our new administration. …We’re in the middle of a department review coming from the chief of our agency.
Once that review is complete, that will clear a path on what we’re supposed to be doing.”
Louis said he didn’t have a timeframe on when that might be complete.
Still, Mississippi Soil and Water Conservation Commission Executive Director Nick Ivy told The Dispatch in February that his organization would receive a cease and desist order if funding is cut.
While MSWCC received no such communication in February, Ivy was not available for comment before press time Wednesday and MSWCC staff weren’t able to confirm or deny whether the dam’s federal funding had been affected.
What if grant funding doesn’t come?
Any of the options would be a substantial expenditure for the county without federal assistance. Oktibbeha’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget has $71 million in starting funds and income, with all public works spending for the entire year adding up to $22 million. District 1 Supervisor Ben Carver told The Dispatch on Tuesday that finding the roughly $5-11 million required would be very difficult.
“The money that we’ve got allocated for the dam needs to be utilized and taken advantage of,” he said. “That’s a blessing and a godsend, I wouldn’t say once in a lifetime but it’s unheard of to get that kind of money. … I’d support the $11 million option with federal funds, but if there aren’t – it’s back to the drawing board. Let it sit and find a funding source.”
District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer thought it might be possible to find funding if there was a groundswell of public support for the lake as an economic engine, but otherwise the drained lake and dam aren’t likely to rise to the top of the board’s concern list.
“I’ll be frank with you, I think it would be a very low priority,” he said. “We’d have to look at it as an economic development project, and it could be looked at like that. But you’d have to prove to the citizens that you’re not just digging a hole and throwing finances into it as a bad investment for the taxpayer.”
District 4 Supervisor Pattie Little was largely in agreement with her colleagues, saying that while the dam is important it’s hard to find millions of dollars lying around the county budget, and roads and bridges are a more pressing concern for her constituents.
“We look at every thousand dollars coming through our budget,” she said. “It would be a high ask. …The dam is a high priority, but roads and bridges are a real high priority. I don’t have any other way to say it. I can’t even tell you how much time I spent getting money for the Morgantown Bridge, and I’ve got other bridges and roads closed right now. That said, school buses cross that dam. It needs to be fixed.”
District 5 Supervisor Joe Williams did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
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