YES VIRGINIA, THE CORPS CAN CONTROL LAKE LEVEL

Over the past couple of months the Corps has demonstrated how they can hold lake levels within 6".  But that was because they wanted to in order to help fish spawning.  Our problem is they don't appear to want to hold the level for recreation purposes.

We know, and the Corps has stated in repeated analyses of the impact of release rates, that as long as the release rate out of Thurmond is equal to or greater than 3600 cfs there is no significant environmental impact downstream.  Congress stipulated 30 some years ago that recreation should be protected along with all the other concerns of the Savannah River Basin.  And by recreation they were talking about the huge infrastructure that is associated with lake access and use by the public.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to combine those two pieces of information and justify keeping the lakes full by reducing release rates to as low as 3600cfs to maintain the level.  There will be times when 3600cfs will allow the lake levels to drop more than 6" but not to the catastrophic levels experienced repeatedly over the past decade.

All the arguments against this have one major flaw.  The current drought plan asks that we release more water than nature supplies by rain.  One would think the simple desire to preserve as much fresh water as possible would defeat any such argument.  The Corps knows we should conserve water as much as possible.  They demonstrate this with their water saving hypocrisy in their offices such as waterless urinals.  Release rates of just a few hundred cfs above 3,600 dwarf the amount of water being saved with the best of water saving tactics.  No city downstream with control over watering lawns or using waterless urinals like the ones in use by the Corps can begin to make up for the waste we repeatedly see when the Corps refuses to drop release rates to a minimum during a drought.

In the humble opinion of this author, man is not smart enough to do a better job than nature does. We can take out the ravages of severe flooding and even severe drought but trying to run nature like a piece of machinery is futile. A prime example of what I am saying is to look out West at Lake Powel which has been literally destroyed by continually releasing more water than nature provides.  The situation out there is so bad they are even trucking salmon to the ocean which is another example of the futility of trying to out smart nature.

SOLUTION TO LAKE LEVEL PROBLEMS

Ultimately the Colonel in control of the Savannah River Basin is the best person to correct our lake level problems.  If he decides to protect recreation at the same level he handles the other responsibilities Congress has given the Corps for managing our lakes, he can control lake levels well inside +/- 5ft by decreasing flows to as little as 3600cfs anytime the lakes drop more than a foot.  As stated repeatedly in Corps documents concerning release rates from Lake Thurmond, 3600cfs has no significant environmental impact on the river below the lakes.  Colonel Tickner may well do just that.  Time will tell.  He has maintained excellent level control so far but we won't know for sure until we hit a real dry spell similar to the droughts experienced repeatedly over the past decade.

If you wonder whether that kind of level control is unreasonable, look at what the Corps is doing right now.  They are maintaining lake levels to within +/- 6 inches for a couple of months while fish spawning is in progress.

But what if the Colonel ignores recreation the way we have seen in the past.  Then we need a congressman with a willingness to bring this to a stop.  Looking at the congressional race in Georgia there are two gentlemen who could make a real difference.  One is Gary Gerrard who is a no nonsense lawyer.  He has told us that if elected he will make sure lake stakeholders get representation at the meetings where lake levels and release rates are decided by the Corps.  The other is Stephen Simpson who goes even further than that.  He understands the mechanics involved and agrees with our suggested solution to the problem.  Furthermore Stephen has powerful contacts in the army who would be more than willing to help with our problem.  Whether you live in SC or GA do what you can to support one or the other of these.  It would be a shame to have one of the other candidates win because non of them has expressed any concern for or knowledge about our lake problems.