In January, the deputy assistant secretary of the Army signed a record of decision, securing a new water supply for the region.
Storage space in Stockton Lake will now be reallocated to provide for drinking water and industrial water supply to communities that participate in SWMO Water, including Barry, Jasper, Lawrence, McDonald and Newton Counties in Missouri. The regional coalition of municipalities and water providers is working to address projected future water supply shortfalls by sharing in the development of additional future water supply and transmission infrastructure. It’s work that started years ago, according to SWMO Water executive director Roddy Rogers.
"We started in 2003 with the groundwater study that showed that that wasn't the source for the future," he said, "and then we did some other studies. We still looked at groundwater, looked at building new reservoirs, existing reservoirs. And that led us to requesting reallocation from the Corps of Engineers from Stockton and Table Rock (and) later added Pomme de Terre."
Rogers said the record of decision allowing the use of additional water from Stockton Lake will meet about 70% of the region’s water needs through 2060. The request for allocations from Table Rock Lake and Pomme de Terre haven’t yet been decided.
The allocations "will have no significant impact on (Stockton) lake," SWMO Water said in a statement.
The next step for the Stockton allocation is to get contracts in place between the Corps and the utility commission and between the commission and each of its members. Planning studies will also need to be done before design and construction of a pipeline can begin.
Rogers expects the project to be a long-term economic driver.
"It'll inject close to $1 billion, about 8,000 jobs into our economy," he said.
SWMO Water said in a news release that area legislatures, including Congressmen Eric Burlison and Mark Alford, Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves and Senator Eric Schmitt played key roles in the effort, "ensuring the project's approval and saving Southwest Missouri tens of millions of dollars through the Water Resources Development Act of 2024, which became law on January 5, 2025."
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