Kingston, Mo. ? If the federal government approves funding, Caldwell County residents may have a 362-acre lake for recreation and to ease water shortages in the area.

Friday, county and federal officials agreed to send the Little Otter Creek watershed plan and environmental impact statement to Congress — a step to get funding for the lake.

“This thing becomes a political reality,” said Harold Deckerd of the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service.

The still-unnamed lake, which would be built southeast of Hamilton, would contain enough water to supply 1.2 million gallons of drinking water each day.

County officials said the lake would ease a severe water shortage in northwest Missouri.

“I realized Caldwell County was just like everybody else: Either we have a water problem, or we’re going to have one,” said Marvin Nickell, chairman of the steering committee that began planning the project in July 2000.

State Conservationist Roger Hansen estimated the project would cost about $6.2 million. More than half that amount will come from the conservation service, which gets its funding from Congress.

The rest of the money, about 46 percent of the total, will come from Caldwell County. In August, voters approved a half-cent sales tax to fund the project.

Hansen said it would be three to five years before construction could begin on the lake.

The conservation service plans to install boat ramps, hiking trails and other amenities. About 319 acres surrounding the lake also will see some work as the conservation services attempt to stop damaging floods that occur most years. Hansen said the area suffered about $65,000 in damage each year.