TWCA Annual Convention 2020

1. Texas Water Conservation Annual Convention 2020
March 6, 2020
Larry Patterson, PE – Executive Director
Edward M. Motley, P.E., BCEE - Lake Ralph Hall Program Manager

2. Upper Trinity Regional Water District
Water System Service Area & Sources
CHAPMAN LAKE
RAY ROBERTS
LAKE
LEWISVILLE
LAKE
PROPOSED
LAKE RALPH HALL
32 MILES
TOM HARPOOL
REGIONAL WATER
TREATMENT PLANT
THOMAS E. TAYLOR
REGIONAL WATER
TREATMENT PLANT Serving 325,000
in 25 communities

3. Lake Ralph Hall Schedule
Planning
2 Years
State & Federal Permitting
17 Years
Land Acquisition
15 Years
Design
7 Years
Construction
5 Years
Filling
3 Years
“Water for the People
it Takes Leadership”

4. Developing New Water Supplies
Barking up the
wrong tree
Didn’t want to
Lay an Egg
+
To Hell in a
Hand Basket

5. Water for the People
Lake Ralph Hall

6. FANNIN COUNTY
PROPOSED
LAKE RALPH HALL
Lake Ralph Hall
Surface Area – 7,560 acres
(Size of Grapevine, but 30% greater Yield)
TCEQ Permit:
Storage = 180,000 acre-feet
Authorized Diversion; 45,000 ac-ft/yr

8. A Trip Back to 2000
St. Louis Rams won the Super Bowl
American Beauty won Best Picture
U.S. opened public access to GPS
Dallas Stars won the “Stanley Cup”
First Round of Regional Water Planning Underway

9. UTRWD Was Planning for Its Water Supply
• Established partnerships with the
City of Ladonia & Fannin County
• Performed Lake Ralph Hall
feasibility studies
• Evaluated filing State & Federal
permit applications for the Lake Congressman Ralph Hall
and Mayor Leon Hurse

11. The Lake Ralph Hall Site - - OFF to a Good Start
• North Sulphur River Channel
(highly degraded)
• Tributaries severely eroded
• Limited wetlands
• Few residences within site
• No impacts to cemeteries
• Local support

12. Water Supply Development in Texas
• Last Water Rights Permit for a major reservoir issued in 1985
• Legislature created additional requirements -- Inter-basin transfers
• Institutional Knowledge at TCEQ & coordinating Agencies – “Limited”
• No Major Reservoir Section 404 Permit issued in decades
• Court decisions and rule changes expanded NEPA requirements
• Waters of the U.S. based on 1986 guidance
• USACE experience in major reservoir permitting lacking - - too!

14. Section 404 – Clean Water Act
Lake Ralph Hall – Regulatory Requirements
Section 404 – Clean Water Act
Section 14 (408) Rivers and Harbors Act
Section 401 – Clean Water Act
Permit to Appropriate State Water (Water
Rights Permit)
Texas Pollution Discharge Elimination System
Endangered Species Act
Fish & Wildlife Coordination Act
Migratory Bird Treaty Act
Section 106 – National Historic Preservation Act
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
Archaeological Resources Protection Act
American Indian Religious Freedom Act
Texas Antiquities Act
National Environmental Protection Act

15. Applied August 2003
Administratively Complete September, 2004
Contested Case hearing January, 2013
Water Rights Permitting
Applied August 2003 - - (Administratively Complete September, 2004)
Contested Case hearing January, 2013 - - Primary contested Issues:
• Cost as compared to other sources
• Conservation plan
• Downstream releases
Permit issued December, 2013
TCEQ Permitting Decision - - Appealed
• Issue – Lack of TCEQ rulemaking on conservation
• Permit upheld by Texas Court of Appeals

16. Applied August 2003
Administratively Complete September, 2004
Contested Case hearing January, 2013
Clean Water Act - Section 404 Permit
Application Filed - - October 2006
Initiated Environmental Impact Study (EIS) - - July 2008
Environmental Impact Statement:
• Draft – October, 2018
• Final – September, 2019
Record of Decision and Permit issued - - January, 2020

17. Section 404 – Clean Water Act
Concurrent Regulatory Activities
Environmental Impact
Statement
Prepared by a Third Party Contractor
Addresses:
• Project Need
• Alternatives
• Affected Environment
• Environmental Consequences
• Mitigation
Input from Agencies & the Public
Mitigation Plan
Detailed plan to mitigate impacts
• Focused on aquatic resources
• Based on a Functional Assessment:
o Impacted resources
o Mitigation resources
o Mitigated Function > Impact
Function
Agencies’ most significant concern

18. Lake Ralph Hall - - Impacts to Waters of the U.S.
96 miles of streams
• 62,149 lf. Intermittent (56.84 FCUs)
• 447,143 lf. Ephemeral (382.74 FCUs)
Emergent Wetlands - 8 acres

19. PROPOSED LAKE RALPH HALL - - MITIGATION PLAN
Zone A
Zone B
Zone C
Approximately 52 miles of stream
creation, restoration and enhancement
Eight acres of wetlands to be created
• 439.58 FCU Total FCUs
• 56.84 FCUs Intermittent Streams

21. Section 404 – Clean Water Act
Lake Ralph Hall – Cultural Resources
Required
• Section 106 – National Historic Preservation Act
• Texas Antiquities Act
Issues
• Deeply buried archaeology (evidence of ancient civilization)
• Historic structures (within lake area and “viewshed”)
• Surface archaeology (evidence of historic occupation)
Status – on-going

23. Section 404 – Clean Water Act
Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS)
• Proposed rule excludes ephemeral streams from WOTUS
• Impact on permit for Lake Ralph Hall - - Would have Reduced
oStream mitigation by 90% (from 52 to less than 4 miles)
NEPA
• Two year limit on agency NEPA reviews - - LRH took 11 years
• Eliminates Cumulative Impacts – LRH required 20 pages to address
• Use of available information – LRH had to Re-create (Purpose & Need and
Alternative Analysis data available from the State Water Plan)
Conclusion: Proposed WOTUS and NEPA Rules
would have saved UTRWD years of effort and $$$

24. Issued Dec. 11, 2013
YES to - - Lake Ralph Hall Project
Issued Jan. 30, 2020