The Marvin Nichols Reservoir was planned by the Texas Society of Professional Engineers President Marvin Nichols. The proposed Reservoir would be built on the Sulphur River near Texarkana, Texas, in sections of Red River and Titus Counties. The Reservoir has been classified as a source of water for the Dallas area and is estimated to cost a huge sum of money and comes at a heft cost that is estimated to cost around $4.4 million. There have been debates and discussions that have been ongoing for decades on whether the Reservoir should be constructed or not. It had greatly faded from the spotlight but is now gaining momentum.
In a bid to stop the construction of this Reservoir, coalitions were launched to sensitize people on the effects of its construction. Personally, I also agree with the sensitization because the construction of the Reservoir would consume thousands of acres of land owned by the local residents. This will take away their homes and inheritance and eliminate several family cemeteries and Native American heritage places. This will be seen as stealing from families who have owned the pieces of land for many generations and rendering them homeless. Under federal law, additional land called mitigation is required to settle the disrupted people. Fears arise as many doubt whether they will be compensated for their lands. Other residents feel that even if they are compensated, they are too attached to their homes as their ancestors lived and were buried there; thus, this remains a heritage to them.
The economy would also be greatly affected since the many acres of land that belonged to the residents were mainly used for farming and fishing. Agricultural activities become impossible due to the interruption of the groundwater environment and the natural landscape (Sun et al., 2019). Apart from farming activities, the locals had established other business activities in the area that had been their source of income for a long time. The disruption of these activities would impact the growing economy. The area also had ongoing wood activities that supplied timber. If these were to be shut, people would have to go far away in search of timber, increasing the cost and price of timber.
The inundation of animal habitats by the proposed Marvin Nichols Reservoir would be the Reservoir’s greatest impact on wildlife habitats and a huge number of endangered species (White et al., 2017). The Texas Parks and Wildlife Ecological Systems Classification data collection was created by analyzing color infrared and multi-spectral satellite imagery utilized in the Environmental Evaluation Interim Report. The Reservoir is proposed to have an impact on 5.2 percent of forested wetlands and 2.4 percent of bottomland hardwood forests. They include both wooded wetlands and bottomland hardwoods and are regarded particularly significant as wildlife habitats.
The construction of the Reservoir would impact cultural resources since there are a number of cultural resources known to exist and human remains in the area. Thousands of acres of archaeologically significant zones and reservoir footprints as a percentage of earlier cultural resource surveys are also part of this habitat. Cultural resource impacts are managed during permits by working with the Corps of Engineers and the Texas State Historical Commission. Investigation and recording of archaeological sites and proper relocation of cemeteries are all part of the mitigation process. This archaeological mitigation method increases project expenses, and it has been factored into the cost estimates for the proposed Marvin Nichols Reservoir.
Construction of this Reservoir would minimize flows into the Gulf of Mexico bays and estuaries. The project would lower flows by around 670,000 acre-feet per year if the Reservoir was fully utilized with no return flows (Ellis et al., 2018). The discharge from the Atchafalaya River into the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana would be reduced by around 0.4 percent. Decreasing the Atchafalaya’s discharge means returning the river to its natural state, balancing only a small portion of the flows brought to the Atchafalaya by human diversion from the Mississippi River. This impact would be minimal but is of some importance to be noted.
Senate Bill One, passed by the Texas Legislature in 1997, established a regional water planning mechanism for the state. The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) oversaw the planning process, establishing regulations for planning and establishing 16 water planning zones around the state. Construction of the Marvin Nichols Reservoir was one of the water management strategies developed, and this has attracted conflicts and opposition from different groups of people. The former planning director for the Tarrant Regional Water District, Wayne Owen, opposes the construction. He thinks that obtaining federal permission might take anywhere from 15 to 25 years due to mandatory analyses of environmental effects and viability. The Texas Conservation Alliance’s Janice Bezanson stated that the development of the Reservoir would have a severe impact on the animal habitat and economic stability in the area.
As discussed above, the construction of the Marvin Nichols Reservoir would generally cause more economic and environmental harm. Thus, this poses a challenge to environmental offices, human well-being departments, and economic analysts to strongly oppose its construction. New efforts are being undertaken to stand against the proposed construction of the Reservoir, and citizens throughout Northeast Texas are being educated about the economic, social, and other impacts that would result from the Reservoir’s construction. If well supported, these coalitions can easily gain meaning and accomplish their mission.
References
Ellis, M. R., Region, D., Plan, R. W., & Ellis, D. M. (2018). Surface Water Supplies. [PDF document]. Web.
Sun, Y., Xu, S. G., Kang, P. P., Fu, Y. Z., & Wang, T. X. (2019). Impacts of artificial underground reservoir on groundwater environment in the reservoir and downstream area. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(11), 1921. Web.
White, K. H., Rubinstein, C., Settemeyer, H., & Ingram, M. (2017). The Case for a Texas Water Market. [PDF document]. Web.