LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Fishermen aren’t the only ones searching for the right spots at Lake Cumberland in southeastern Kentucky.  Several towns have picked out locations for new water intake systems to guarantee sufficient water supplies amid lower lake levels.

The massive reservoir’s level has been lowered by 43 feet to relieve pressure on a leaking dam that crews are repairing. Federal officials have warned that a failure of Wolf Creek Dam, which holds back the largest reservoir east of the Mississippi, could flood Kentucky cities along the Cumberland River and into Tennessee.

On Wednesday, the Kentucky Division of Water approved water intake modification plans for treatment plants in Burnside, Jamestown and Albany. The projects will extend pipes to deeper portions of the lake, where new intake systems will be installed.

State officials said the work will enable the communities to continue drawing from Lake Cumberland for drinking water supplies even if the lake level is drawn down further.

“It’s one of the most urgent projects I remember,” said Albany Mayor Nicky Smith.

The intake for Albany Water Works is currently in an area where the water level has dropped to 15 to 20 feet, he said. Normally, the water depth is 50 to 60 feet.

“We’re just close to as low as we can go,” said Gary Bertram, superintendent for the Albany water plant. “If some emergency came up where they had to lower it more, we’d be in trouble before we get the new intake.”

He said the plant has ample supplies, despite rising demand amid a recent dry spell.

The plan for Albany calls for a 29,500-foot water pipe extension to a floating intake with four pumps. The platform will be equipped with flashing lights to keep boaters away.

The project, to be completed this fall, will cost about $8.2 million, Smith said. The city will take out a loan of about $700,000 and the rest will come from the state, he said.

Gov. Ernie Fletcher authorized up to $25 million in emergency funding for such infrastructure projects as communities near Lake Cumberland cope with lower water levels.

“The governor has done us right,” Smith said.

Lake Cumberland’s level has been lowered to 680 feet above sea

level, down from its typical summer elevation of 723 feet, said Barney Davis, chief of engineering construction at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Nashville, Tenn.

A decision on whether to raise or lower the lake level isn’t expected until fall, when officials will assess repairs to control seepage under the dam, Davis said.

A panel of national experts had recommended that the lake’s level be lowered to about 650 feet. In January, Corps officials decided on the 680-foot level.

As part of the estimated 7-year rehabilitation project, work crews have been applying grout, a runny concrete poured into gaps in the dam’s underground foundation.

“It’s not going as fast as we would like it to in a situation like this, but they are working hard on the project,” Davis said.

The plan also includes inserting a new underground wall.

The current intake for Jamestown Municipal Water Works is in an area where the water is about 35 feet deep, about half the normal depth, said Dale Anderson, the city’s water superintendent. If the Corps had accepted the panel’s recommendation of lowering the lake level to 650 feet, the city’s water intake pumps “would be sitting in mud,” he said.

The Jamestown plant’s modifications include an 8,000-foot water pipe extension to a floating intake equipped with three pumps and flashing lights.

The project is to be operational by December and is expected to cost a little more than $3 million, according to an engineering consultant for the city.

The plan for Burnside’s water treatment plant consists of constructing an alternate water intake using 500 feet of pipe and a floating intake with two pumps.

Modification plans for Somerset Water Service were approved in March, state water officials said. Plans for the Monticello Water and Sewer Commission were approved in March but are undergoing revision, the officials said.

The McCreary County Water District hasn’t yet submitted its plan to the Division of Water. The plant serving Woodson Bend property owners doesn’t currently require modification, state officials said.

The seven water systems supply drinking water to 203,000 people in nine counties—Adair, Clinton, Cumberland, Lincoln, McCreary, Monroe, Pulaski, Russell and Wayne, officials said.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)