CENTRE — On behalf of its Centre-based Shoreline Management Office, Alabama Power Company earlier this month took legal action against two Weiss Lake property owners in eastern Cherokee County, The Post has learned.

According to documents filed in United States District Court in Birmingham earlier this month, Alabama Power (APCO) filed suit Feb. 1 against two Georgia families who own lakefront lots in the Cotton Cove No. 2 subdivision on Mud Creek in the Alexis community.

According to the lawsuits, which The Post obtained in mid-February, a family from Dallas, Ga., and another from Kennesaw, Ga., have been served with separate lawsuits. The suits allege that they violated the terms of their property deeds and construction permits issued by the Shoreline Management Office by erecting structures on their recreational properties in APCO's flood easement around Weiss Lake that “far exceed what was authorized.”

The Post has chosen to withhold the names of the defendants until their Georgia-based attorney can be reached for comment. Multiple calls placed last week to lawyer Alan Minschew's office were not returned by press time.

The lawsuits argue that both defendants “knowingly violated the permits” and refused multiple requests from APCO representatives to devise and submit “an acceptable plan for bringing the non-compliant structures in compliance.”

The lawsuits ask that the federal court acknowledge APCO's right to enforce its permitting process, declare the structures in violation of their permits, and issue a permanent injunction ordering the structures be removed from the easement.

“Alabama Power will suffer irreparable harm if the Court does not issue the requested injunction,” the lawsuit states.

APCO established a Shoreline Management Office in Centre in 2006 to better organize the process of eliminating “unapproved structures” in its easement. APCO regulations strictly limit allowable structures in the easement to those that would in no way impeded the flow of water through them during a flood.

The flood easement and the restrictions on construction within it allow APCO to fulfill the flood control portion of the federal license that permitted the company to construct the reservoir in the early 1960s.

Last summer, Shoreline Management Office Director Tommy Miller told The Post he and his staff had identified 814 “houses” inside the flood easement around Weiss Lake. The lawsuits are among APCO's first comprehensive legal efforts in years to reduce the number of structures in the easement.

“The [houses] category can include camper trailers with permanent additions built on, or storage sheds or camper sheds that have been converted into enclosed, fully-habitable structures,” Miller told The Post in June 2011. “That's the number we're keying on, 814, to work to get to zero.”

APCO spokesman Brandon Glover declined to comment on the specifics of the legal actions against the defendants, citing the company's police regarding ongoing litigation.