Message from Jim Harvey
formerly CEO of Central Arkansas Water

Lake Maumelle is more than a "lake."

Watershed protection is the first line of protection for the drinking water that comes out of our faucets. By controlling what goes into the drinking water source on the front end we help to assure that what comes out of the tap and into our homes is safe and free of contamination. We also control the cost for service to consumers, such as you and me.

Water treatment has long been considered by the public to be the primary determinant of how safe our drinking water is and whether it meets federal and state standards of public health. With 30 years of experience in water quality research and operations, I know that watershed protection also has played an indispensable role.

The watershed of a drinking water supply is all of the surrounding land that feeds runoff into the lake. Thus it would follow that protecting the water supply from sources of pollution is a wise approach. It is the approach that Central Arkansas Water (CAW) and its predecessor utilities have taken to protect our local drinking water supplies.

Both of the drinking water sources for CAW customers - Lake Winona and Lake Maumelle - were constructed in areas surrounded by forestland. Locating the lakes within natural areas was our first stage of watershed and water quality protection. The lakes, built back in the 1930s and 1950s, respectively, at the time were far from populated areas; however, community growth over the past few decades shortened the distance.

The best and most assured management practice to protect the drinking water supplies from pollution that comes with urbanization would be to own the entirety of the watersheds of the two lakes. The public utility owns a certain amount of land around the immediate shoreline of each lake. We also are extremely fortunate in that all of the Lake Winona Watershed is owned by either the U.S. Forest Service or CAW.

Lake Maumelle is different. Two-thirds of the lake's vast watershed is under private ownership thus open to land-use changes.

Lake Maumelle 's watershed consists of approximately 88,000 acres, which makes it cost-prohibitive to own all of it. So, as stewards of the lake, the governing board for CAW has targeted the most critical 1,300 acres for acquisition and preservation. The acreage is less than 2% of all lands in the watershed thus leaves plenty of acreage open for development under pollution-control restrictions. This approach is not cost-prohibitive and is both practical and prudent.

We must remember that protecting public health and our drinking water supply is about prevention. It is easier to take preventive measures to stay well than have to recover from being sick. It is easier to keep the water quality in Lake Maumelle stable than to have to recover it from damage by pollution.