PANAMA CITY — After listening to a detailed report from a utilities official on procedures at Deer Point reservoir, Bay County Commissioners Guy Tunnell and Bill Dozier gave high marks to the way the utilities department reacted before heavy rain hit two weeks ago.
“In my travels the last several days, I found a lot of expertise about how Deer Point reservoir should have been managed,” Tunnell said during the commission meeting Tuesday. “I wish everybody had an opportunity to see this presentation. Even if the lake had been bone dry, to get seven times what it normally holds is unbelievable.”
Tunnell’s district includes the Deer Point area.
Utilities Services Director Paul Lackemacher said the lake holds 10 billion gallons of water at 5 feet of depth; the rain event from Tuesday through Thursday produced almost 80 billion gallons of water in the county’s watershed area.
“We can only work with the information we have,” Lackemacher said. “Inevitably blaming someone is what happens.”
Lackemacher has taken the brunt of the blame from some residents for not opening drawdown gates at Deer Point reservoir to 100 percent at 7:20 a.m. on April 28. On April 27 at midnight, the National Weather Service gave a 50 percent chance of rain for the upcoming Tuesday and for a half inch to three-quarters of an inch for the entire week. The report changed at 6 a.m. April 28 to a 70 percent chance of rain on April 29. With that report, Lackemacher opened the gates to 100 percent. The gates had been open 25 percent since April 22, recovering from previous rains. The reservoir was at 4.5 feet before rain started, the usual target before a rain even, Lackemacher said.
“We open the gates when there is a 50 percent chance or better within 24 to 36 hours,” Lackemacher said.
It was not until 6:50 a.m. on April 29, with it already raining for over two hours, that the weather reports changed to reflect the amount of rain the county would actually receive, although the maximum estimate of 5 inches was still off by more than 4 inches.
“Based on the report we got, I don’t know what else could have been done,” Dozier said. “They reacted to each report they got from the weather people. They opened it at full capacity right off the bat.”
Lackemacher said there was nothing else the utilities department could have done. He added that the drawdown gates are not designed to prevent flooding but instead to curb certain types of aquatic vegetation. The reservoir rose to 7.5 feet and at 7 feet about 117 properties are in danger of flooding, although not all of those properties have residences, Lackemacher said.
“Even if we opened it 24 hours earlier we might have been half a foot lower,” Lackemacher said. “That’s just a guess.”
What would help flooding situations is a flood control structure, which Dozier said the commission may consider. Lackemacher said such a structure may be cost prohibitive; structures he examined cost at least $75 million.
Dozier added that Mother Nature may be balancing out drought conditions from the past several years.
“You have to look at the bigger picture,” he said.
Lackemacher said the reservoir was down to 4.5 feet on Friday and the Utilities Department would open the gates to 100 percent with the first report of a chance of rain of 50 percent or higher.
Water project grant
Unrelated to flooding, the commission approved a $4.5 million grant from the Northwest Florida Water Management District for an alternative water project at Deer Point reservoir.
The project, with an estimated cost of $25 million, would provide a pipeline from the mouth of Econfina Creek to provide safe drinking water to the county water treatment plant in case of hurricane conditions that could contaminate water at Deer Point reservoir.
“We’ve got plenty of water,” Lackemacher said. “It’s the quality of water we’re concerned about.”
Lackemacher said permits and easements still need to be finalized but he is hoping for construction to begin within 45 days.