The Dugdemona Soil and Water Conservation District, in cooperation with local, state, and federal agencies, last month took the official first steps which could lead to creation of a new lake on the Port de Luce watershed in southeastern Winn Parish.

At a meeting in Winnfield on Monday, May 24, Congressman Rodney Alexander, along with heads of state, parish, and municipal agencies, signed a joint operating agreement to set in motion the engineering and site studies leading up to construction.

According to a Plan of Work presented at the Winnfield meeting, plan is due for completion in June, 2004.

At the meeting last month, Bruce Frazier, chairman of the Dugdemona Soil and Water Conservation District, told the group, "There is nothing bigger right now for community development than this watershed project."

A lake created in the Port De Luce watershed would be a multi-purpose facility, providing an alternative supply for municipal waiter for Winnfield, serve recreational and commercial development in the area, and offer an alternative to the continuing drawdown of the Sparta underground aquifer in North Louisiana, which threatens to become depleted without development of surface water alternatives.

The pre-construction survey will be financed principally with a grant of $860,000 in federal funds, secured through efforts of Re. Alexander in Washington.

Alexander told the group, "I'm glad we are in a position to help. This area is 25 to 30 years behind other areas in development. I hope that 25 or 30 years from now we won't still be worrying about the Sparta aquifer."

Dugdemona SWCD chairman Frazier said, "We have the right mix in this room today to make things happen."

Officials present and signing the joint agreement on the Port de Luce project were Don Gomer, Chief Conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Louisiana; Rep. Alexander; Winn Police Jury President Bobby Hutto; Winnfield Mayor Deano Thornton; Bruce Lazarus, Winn parish representative on the Dugdemona SWCD board.

The North Louisiana area currently has man-made lakes on Caney Creek in Jackson Parish, Lakes Claiborne and D'Arbonne on Bayou D'Arbonne in Claiborne and Union Parishes, Toledo Bend Reservoir on the Sabine River in Western Louisiana, plus Caddo Lake, Saline, Clear, and Black Lakes, and several others. Most of these are multiple-use water bodies, with recreational, residential, and commercial development resulting from the water impoundments. Other potential sites are on the drawing boards or awaiting plans, with the Sparta depletion problem one of the driving issues.

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