City sets date for More’s Lake project public hearing

A lake owned by Columbia Water and Light is moving forward with their plans to restore More’s Lake in Columbia.

The Columbia City Council approved to set a public hearing for April 17 to discuss the restoration project.

More’s Lake for decades was used as a source of cooling water for the Municipal Power Plant. The plant started using More’s Lake for processing the ash. However, in order to be in compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency, the ash that remains in More’s Lake needs to be removed.

Key projects that need to be done by April 2020 include removing ash from the pond, hauling and disposing of the ash in the city landfill, and removal/disposal of ash contaminated earth in the city’s landfill. The short-term impact project is estimated to cost $1 million dollars, the long-term impact is estimated to cost $7.8 million.

Mayor Brian Treece told ABC 17 News that he believes the restoration project will be good for the city but believes the project cost could be lowered.

“There are limits to what can be spent, I do think that a remediation project can be brought in significantly under that budget,” Treece said. “I think that’s much more appropriate to remediate that asset than it would be to clean it up burry it and plant grass over it.”

In June of 2016, Burns & McDonnell (B&M) was contracted to assist with the engineering work required for the project.

The lake was once used as a recreational area in Columbia and that is what Water & Light hopes to do.

Work on the project is scheduled to begin in spring 2017 and will take up to three years to complete.