By James Ronald Skains
Journal Correspondent

"All we need is rain and more rain," Jim Pratt the Executive Director of the Sabine River Authority Louisiana (SRAL) told the Piney Woods Journal. "By mid-September, the lake will hit a record low level of 162.2 at which point we will stop generating electricity. The Lake is now five feet below the normal level for this time of year."

During one terrific three day rain in January of 1999, Toledo Bend Lake rose two feet.

The Sabine River Authority was created in Louisiana in 1950 under the administration of then Governor Earl K. Long by Act 261 which became Chapter 11 of Title 38 in the Louisiana revised Statues. The SRAL is governed by a 13 member board of Commissioners from the six parishes that border the Sabine River in Louisiana who serve at the discretion of the Governor.

Four members are from Sabine Parish, two each from DeSoto, Vernon, Beauregard, and Calcasieu, and one from Cameron parish. On the other side of the lake is Sabine River Authority Texas (SRAT) which was created in 1949.

The Toledo Bend Lake Project was actually initiated in 1955 with a joint agreement between the two agencies. The two agencies, SRAL and SRAT are required to have two joint meetings per year.

"The interest of Texas and Louisiana are not always the same in the management of the Sabine River and Toledo Bend Lake," Pratt pointed out. "Texas has regulated water for many years while Louisiana has tended to focus the generation of electricity and recreational uses of the Lake."

"The SRAT covers 21 Texas counties and includes other lakes in the Sabine River drainage area of 7,178 square miles," Pratt explained. "They are headquartered in Orange, Texas and have several projects on the lower end of the Sabine River. The Sabine River headwaters are in Northeast Texas and flow 578 miles to the Gulf of Mexico.''

Pratt has been active in the El Camino Real Tourist Corridor Development Commission during his three years as Executive Director of SRAL and his six years as Assistant Director. The El Camino project is designed to enhance economic development, especially tourism and recreation through north central Louisiana by making U.S. Hwy 84 four lanes from Vidalia to Clarence. Then Hwy 6 will be four lanes from Clarence through Natchitoches to the Texas border which crosses Toledo Bend Lake on the Pendleton Bridge at SRAL headquarters.

Pratt's tenure with the SRAL began when he answered an ad in the Shreveport Times for a position of Asst. Director for SRAL ten years ago.

"There were at least 50 applications and I didn't think much of my chances of getting the job," Pratt confessed. "I wasn't politically connected and only had my resume to go on. After several interviews I was offered the job and have thoroughly enjoyed my time with the Sabine River Authority of Louisiana."

Pratt brought an impressive resume of experience gained from the time he left the cotton fields of Northeast Arkansas for a four year stint in the Marine Corp. After his stint in the Marine Corp, Pratt returned to his native northeast Arkansas and earned a Master's degree in Wildlife Management from Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.

After graduating, he spent five years with the LSU Ag Center in Northwest Louisiana before going to work for Caddo parish where he was working when he made his application to SRAL. During his stay in Caddo parish, he also earned an MBA degree from Centenary.

"The entire Toledo Bend Lake project is unique in that no federal monies were involved in its development," Pratt pointed out. "A total of $70 million dollars in bonds were sold to pay for the construction of the Lake. The bonds were only guaranteed by the sale of electricity from the hydro-electric power plant at the dam."

"The SRAT and SRAL jointly own the hydro-electric power plant but it is operated under a forty year agreement by the Entergy Corporation," Pratt noted. "Originally there were three companies involved, Louisiana Power & Light, Gulf States Utilities, and CLECO which still owns a 25% stake in the operation. The concept has worked as designed to pay off the bonds."

"However, the problem that we are addressing now is that we are getting $21 per megawatt hour revenue from our hydro-electric plant while the market rate is $70 per meg hour," Pratt added. "The 40 year electrical power contract was originated in 1968 and is up for renewal in 2008. The price of electricity has certainly gone up in Louisiana since 1968."

"We can sell water from Toledo Bend Lake for 15 cents per 1,000 gallons which makes it 50 times more valuable than the money we get from the hydro-power generation," Pratt explained. "It takes one million acre feet of water in five months to produce $1.4 million in electrical power revenue for us. However, that same water could produce $51 million in revenue for us just as water."

The actual construction on Toledo Bend Lake started on May 11, 1964. Massman-Johnson Company was the general contractor with a $70 million dollar contract. Water impoundment on the lake began on October 3, 1966. It was completed in 1967 to a 168 mean sea level the following year.

The Lake is 65 miles long with 1,200 miles of shoreline. The Lake is mostly between 3 and 5 miles wide with a maximum depth of 110 feet. It covers 185,000 acres and has 80 public access points. There were over 100 archeological sites found in the Lake area.

Although the dam on the Sabine River that forms Toledo Bend Lake is actually in Newton County, Texas, most of the water is on the Louisiana side due to many curves in the Sabine River channel which is the true border between Louisiana and Texas.

The Sabine River area has long had an colorful history. For many years it was known as a "No Man's Land." For years there was a fair in Sabine parish called the "Free State of Sabine Fair."

In addition, the first capital of Texas for fifty years was at Los Adaes near the present Louisiana town of Robeline. Legend has it that way back in history in an Indian village across from the present town of Zwolle lived a Chief and two twin boys.

When the twin boys reached adulthood, the Chief instructed his two boys to each take some of the people in the village and one twin would travel west and one would travel east for one day. Wherever, they camped at the end of one day's travel they were to start a village. One village has become known as Nacogdoches, Texas and the other, Natchitoches, Louisiana.

"As the water level has fallen so drastically in the last year, we have requested that the power generating be scaled back to conserve water flow to ensure that the water will not endanger our recreational use of the Lake," Pratt stated. "However, our request has basically been ignored while many marinas are high and dry as are boat houses and fishing piers all along the shoreline. When the outflow of the Lake due to generating electricity is more than the inflow, then you've got low water levels. We are one foot lower this year than in 2005."

"The actual drought of record was between 1964 and 1969," Pratt pointed out. "We have factual water flow data on the Sabine River dating back to 1904."

The dam has 11 control gates capable of discharging 1,000 gallons per minute. There are two 40 megawatt generating units in the hydro-electric operation.

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