Lake Hico was a

cooling pond A cooling pond is a man-made body of water primarily formed for the purpose of cooling heated water and/or to store and supply cooling water to a nearby power plant or industrial facility such as a petroleum refinery, pulp and paper mill, chemica ...

reservoir built on 16th section school land in

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the Capital city, capital of and the List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, Mississippi, ...

, in the 1950s. Its primary purpose was to provide water for the adjacent Rex Brown Plant, which generates electricity with steam. Initially, Lake Hico was open to the public for recreation. The lake was closed to the public in the late 1960s, along with the public swimming pools in Jackson, due to racial prejudices preventing peaceful integration of public swimming holes. Lake Hico was built as a cooling lake for the Rex Brown Electric Generating complex. Part of the agreement with the Hinds County board of supervisors was to have a public recreation lake and a lake for the intake and the exhaust of water for cooling for the generators. Thus the two lakes. It was originally built as a fuel oil based generating system but was later converted to natural gas when oil got so expensive in the 1970’s. The reasons why it was finally closed to the public were 1- the Barnett Reservoir opened and most people who had formerly used the lake went there and 2- the liability costs to MP&L skyrocketed after there was a couple of drownings. The fact that integration of such public spaces was being attempted by some and resisted by others in Jackson, Mississippi at the time is possibly pertinent. The adjacent Hico Park was closed after a lawsuit to integrate that park was filed as late as 1975. The Rex Brown plant was just recently totally dismantled. Water is supplied to Lake Hico by a long pipeline from the

Pearl River The Pearl River, also known by its Chinese name Zhujiang or Zhu Jiang in Mandarin pinyin or Chu Kiang and formerly often known as the , is an extensive river system in southern China. The name "Pearl River" is also often used as a catch-all ...

. The vast majority of water supply to keep the lake full comes from the pipeline. Lake Hico is near the headwaters of Eubanks Creek, but the creek does not flow through the lake. Hico is an abbreviation for

Hinds County Hinds County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. With its county seats ( Raymond and the state's capital, Jackson), Hinds is the most populous county in Mississippi with a 2020 census population of 227,742 residents. Hinds Cou ...

, the county in which the lake is situated. The lake is leased to

Entergy Entergy Corporation is a Fortune 500 integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations in the Deep South of the United States. Entergy is headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, and ge ...

, the operator of the Rex Brown Plant, by its owner, the State of

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

via its trust for 16th section lands. The lease is overseen by Mississippi's Secretary of State, Entergy pays $258,000 per year for the lease on Lake Hico. Lake Hico covers over , including a 100+- acre island. The island divides the warmed water coming out of the plant from the cooler main lake. The island has a concrete boat ramp. The lake was home to the Jackson Yacht Club, until the much larger

Ross Barnett Reservoir The Ross Barnett Reservoir, often called the Rez, is a reservoir of the Pearl River between Madison and Rankin counties in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The lake serves as the state's largest drinking water resource, and is managed by the Pea ...

was built in early 1960s. Lake Hico is encircled completely by a six-foot chain-link fence with "no trespassing" signs. The lake is adjoined on the northeast by a city park, however the fence encircling the lake separates the two.

In 2020 Entergy closed the Rex Brown plant, and soon thereafter relinquished their lease on Lake Hico. Management of the lake property was reverted to its owner - the Jackson Public School District (JPS). According to

Mississippi Today Mississippi Today is a nonprofit news organization based in Ridgeland, Mississippi. It was founded in 2016 by former NBC chairman Andrew Lack. It is focused on watchdog journalism related to Mississippi's state and local government, economy, e ...

, in September 2020, JPS directed Entergy to drain the lake and breach the levee between the "hot" and "cold" sides. https://mississippitoday.org/2020/11/27/entergy-to-drain-lake-hico-jps-moving-forward-with-development/

References

Hico Entergy Pearl River (Mississippi–Louisiana) Geography of Hinds County, Mississippi 1950s establishments in Mississippi Cooling ponds {{hindsCountyMS-geo-stub