MOUNT PLEASANT, Texas -- Northeast Texas residents want to know why Dallas-Fort Worth is not considering water sources like Lake Texoma or the Toledo Bend Reservoir to meet the Metroplex's future water needs, instead of tapping into the Sulphur River with the proposed Marvin Nichols Reservoir.

"One of the questions that I hope will be considered by this group is ... has a study been done of the utilization of water of Lake Texoma for projected water needs for Region C," Dr. James Presley asked the committee during the public comment period at a meeting of the Northeast Texas Regional Water Planning Group of Region D, in Mount Pleasant on Wednesday. "And in connection with this, have the consulting engineers done a study of desalinization of Lake Texoma?"

Region D includes Northeast Texas and Region C includes the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. Region D's Northeast Texas Regional Water Planning Group has oversight of the Sulphur River Basin Authority.

Though the public comment period at Wednesday's regional meeting was not intended to be a question and answer session, Virginia Towles, who serves as a liaison between the Texas Water Development Board and both Regions C and D, assured Presley that desalinization is a technology that will be investigated by the board in the next legislative session. "Regarding desalinization of Lake Texoma, I do not know if that is being considered right off hand ... However, I will say that the Texas Water Development Board is requiring studies on desalinization as part of the upcoming planning process ... That is something that upper management is looking at extensively."

Robert T. Russell from Mount Pleasant wanted to know why the Toledo Bend Reservoir, on the Texas and Louisiana border, was not being considered a viable solution for the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex's projected water needs. "I heard about Toledo Bend being an alternate source of water for Dallas ... I was looking at a map today and a pipeline from downtown Dallas to the proposed Marvin Nichols reservoir site is 115 miles, and to Toledo Bend is 165 miles ... What I want to know, is that extra 50 miles of pipeline going to be more expensive than the entire Marvin Nichols project?"

Russell also added that building the reservoir would be disrupting Northeast Texas history. "My family has been in this area for 170 years," he said. "The Sulphur River bottom is part of our history ... a part of our lives ... We should not try to bury it under a reservoir."

Other opinions expressed during the public comment period were about the economic impacts of the reservoir on Northeast Texas. "Going into the next phase of the planning process, the Board needs to investigate the amount of land that is going to be taken up for mitigation," said John Jones of Atlanta, Texas, addressing the committee. "We need to know how it is going to affect the hardwood timber industry ... We're talking about hundreds and thousands of acres of production that will be affected."

De Kalb resident Max Shumake agreed. "I seem to recall talk about desalinization at the last meeting, but I didn't hear any talk about that being added to the scope of work today ... We should be considering anything to help us keep from losing our timber and forests," said Shumake.

Shumake further added there are a lot of people who currently enjoy hunting and fishing in the Sulphur bottom. "You're not going to add any other recreational activities by adding a lake, you're just going to change the type or class of people who will be able to enjoy the lake," he said.

Summing up the frustration of most members of the audience, George Frost of Maud informed the committee that it should be looking out for the interests of Region D. "My family lost 1,000 acres to Lake Wright Patman, and I have friends who lost land that got taken up for mitigation as a result of Cooper Lake," said Frost. "The engineers have said that Region D has adequate water to meet our needs ... and this board is made up of members that represent the various counties in our region, so it seems to me that y'all have a responsibility to us, not looking at the needs of other regions."

Though members of the committee did not respond, Tony Williams, a committee member from Marshall who conducted the proceedings Wednesday, said prior to the public comment period the water planning group has full intentions of informing the public of future meetings and its proceedings. "I have been asked by several poeople if we are going to reconsider Marvin Nichols ... and I think that that question should be answered clearly," said Williams. "Every strategy, every recommendation concerning how to meet the water needs of East Texas has to be re-looked at for this next planning cycle. Absolutely, this group will be revisiting the issues of addressing everybody's water needs."

Addressing those needs, however, will take time, Williams said. "First, we have to determine what the future water needs of each of the 19 counties are ... After we determine what the needs are, then we have to decide how we're going to address those needs. It's going to take a while, but we encourage your attendance at the meetings and we hope you will stay with us throughout the process."

In other business the committee:

* Approved the minutes of the Feb. 13 and Feb. 20 meetings.

* Accepted a letter of resignation submitted by Ruth Culver of Karnack, Texas, and made note of committee member C.W. Forsyth's nomination of Richard LeTourneau to fill the vacancy.

* Approved Phase II of the Scope of Work and the Summary of the Budget with an amendment to eliminate $50,000 to perform a hydrographic survey of Lake Crook in Lamar County and the Pat Mayse Lake in Paris and add those monies to an additional service category named, "Identifying the needs for and the feasibility of interconnections between water sources and suppliers to improve water supply reliability."

With regards to the $1,014,480 budget allotted by the Texas Water Development Board, the committee chose to increase funding for public participation from $71,830 to $215,000 over a period of five years.

The Northeast Texas Regional Water Planning Group of Region D will meet at 2 p.m. on May 15 at the Texas Agriculture Extension Serive office in Mount Pleasant, Texas.