An administrative board that represents localities bordering Smith Mountain Lake promised Tuesday that more than 300 navigational markers will be converted to U.S. Coast Guard standards.
The entity that will officially handle and pay for the change has yet to be decided.The Coast Guard has set Aug. 1, 2014 as the date to bring the navigational marker system into compliance. Rear Admiral Fred Rosa Jr. declared the deadline in a letter to the lake board — the Tri-County Lake Administrative Commission.
TLAC voted Tuesday to draft a response that an attorney would finalize today, said Pam Dinkle, lake management and project coordinator. Dinkle said it states the association will provide a full list of markers needing changes to the Coast Guard — including 153 channel markers and 58 shoal markers.
“Any marker that we know of,” said Dinkle.
However, it also states ownership of the system could switch to Appalachian Power Company. The power company has said it plans to reclaim management in a license renewal plan submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The company was responsible for the navigation system until a little over a decade ago, she said, when funding issues forced it to turn the system over to TLAC.
FERC’s license renewal would allow the firm to continue using a hydroelectric dam at the lake for electricity. Though it is not final until 2010, Dinkle said the decision for an ownership switch could be decided as early as next year.
Chuck Neudorfer, a Bedford County supervisor and TLAC’s chairman, said it makes sense to get the ownership settledbefore any updating occurs.
“There’s no use to get started down one path and then turn around and have to do something else,” he said earlier this week.
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