OKTIBBEHA COUNTY – Supervisors on Monday resolved the Oktibbeha County Lake dam will be rehabilitated to a high-hazard standard, but with the federal grant for the project set to expire in November, the board is still concerned it might lose its funding.
The board was not aware until August that the funding from a grant it received in 2022 could be reallocated elsewhere if it does not make significant progress forward. While Monday’s resolution is a step forward, Board Attorney Rob Roberson is still concerned the board might miss its window.
     Rob Roberson   “The reason we did what we did is (Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality) needed to know what we were willing to do,” Roberson said. “… I am hoping they can get this done sooner rather than later because the clock is ticking on this one. If we don’t get all of the requirements in, it makes me a little concerned we are not going to get the money.”
Now that the board is ready to inform MDEQ of its plans for the project, but MDEQ still needs to hold a public hearing before the board can move forward, District 4 Supervisor Pattie Little said.
For residents who live along Oktibbeha County Lake, progress could not come soon enough.
The dam, built in 1965, struggled with inadequate spillways, eroding slopes and repeated slope failures. Those issues nearly resulted in a full breach of the dam in 2020, forcing a mass evacuation. To relieve pressure, the county drained the lake that year, a move that sparked a civil lawsuit with a local water park.
In the years since, the county and engineers with WSP USA have outlined three options for rehabilitation, ranging from spending $8.1 million to decommission the lake to a $5.4 million moderate-hazard repair.
On Monday, supervisors resolved to go with the most expensive $11.2 million high-hazard rehabilitation, which would see the dam height by at least two feet to hold 41 inches of rain water without spilling over. Little said the board has not received updates to the original cost estimates from October 2024.
Residents filled the courtroom Monday in the Chancery Courthouse during the board’s meeting to express their desire the dam be repaired to a high-hazard lake height.
“One of our greatest concerns with rehabilitating the dam to anything less than high-hazard standards is the burden that decisions can place on the future development downstream,” Tami McGee, who represented Oktibbeha County Lake Citizens Coalition, told the board. “… Choosing a lesser rehabilitation standard today could therefore create additional restrictions, expenses or require modifications as this area develops in the future. We should not make a decision based primarily on reducing today’s construction costs.”
Little said the more the board examined the problem, the more it seemed it had no choice but to do a high-hazard repair. Either of the other repair options, she said, would require the board to get the owners of about 1,900 acres below the dam to agree they would not hold the county liable for any future breaches of the dam.
     Pattie Little   “Nobody is going to do that,” Little said. “… I dug into to it to find out. Trust me I don’t like spending money when we don’t have to. But it was just not feasible (to do anything else).”
Additionally, MDEQ had made it clear to the board that it believes a high-hazard repair is the only option, Little said.
However, MDEQ cannot proceed until the county submits a plan.
“Our Dam Safety Division has not received an application or project proposal related to the proposed dam project in Oktibbeha County,” MDEQ wrote in an email to The Dispatch. “MDEQ staff have met with county representatives and are available to meet with them again as the project develops. Until a specific proposal is submitted for MDEQ’s review, we do not have a project before us on which to comment. We look forward to hearing from Oktibbeha County.”
Funds in flux
The county, working with the National Resources Conservation Service and the Mississippi Soil and Water Conservation Commission, applied for an NRCS Watershed Rehabilitation Program grant in 2022 to fund the dam’s repairs. However, funding from the agency was paused in 2025 amid a federal review of the agency.
The review concluded by November 2025, and funds were meant to be released once engineers finalized their recommendation and NRCS approved its draft plan. However, Little said the board of supervisors had still not received a draft plan or finalized recommendation from the engineers as of Monday, which the board had previously been waiting on before moving forward.
But now with the funding set to potentially expire, the board decided to make a decision without NRCS review, leading to Monday’s 4-0 vote to repair the dam to a high-hazard standard, with board president and District 5 Supervisor Marvell Howard recusing himself since he owns property on the lake.
NRCS did not return the Dispatch’s calls prior to press time Monday.
Even with Monday’s vote, Little said it will be a long time before construction will begin on the lake since there are also no design plans as of yet.
“I’m optimistic,” McGee told The Dispatch in reference to the vote. “I think (the board will) keep their word. I think that they’ll start looking into what needs to be done to get it completed.”