HERE WE GO AGAIN ??????

The latest Balancing the Basin which posted a day or two ago indicates we may be destined for more lake level issues.  If I understand what Stan Simpson (a hydrologist for the Savannah District) is saying, the Corps does not plan on holding lake levels the way they have been over the past month or so.  Stan mentions that increased evaporation and uptake by vegetation normally cause the lake to drop as much as 4ft in the summer.  What he does not say is whether the Corps will vary releases down to 3600cfs as necessary to minimize the amount the lakes drop in level.

He mentions power needs but that is not a reason to ignore lake level control for several reasons:

• We are a peaking power supplier rather than continuous power which means long sustained power generation is not the objective. Peaking power demands we have capacity for surges when demands are high.  When the lakes are allowed to drop over 10ft the ability to provide peaking power becomes very limited.
• Meeting a quota for overall generation is essentially an economic issue.  The economics of decreased real estate values and damage to the recreation infrastructure from low lake levels is far greater than the total value of the power generated by our lakes.  According to SEPA we are only one of 8 systems they get power from and they can easily make up for any short falls from us with make up power from the other systems.
• We have come very close to literally destroying our lakes several times.  Should that occur our lakes would no longer be a viable source of power not to mention what happens to all the other aspects of managing the Savannah River Basin.  In short, the Corps rather than the weather would be responsible for a catastrophic failure of the whole system because of their refusal to change the current drought plan.

The corps has demonstrated they are capable of controlling lake levels to very close tolerances.  The problem is the current drought plan does nothing to control lake level.  The lakes have to drop 4ft before any control over release rates is initiated.  And the response to such a drop is much less than has been demonstrated to be feasible. The lakes have to drop 15ft before emergency level control is initiated and by that time destruction of the lakes, one at a time, is imminent.

Lake level control has been outstanding since Colonel Tickner took the reins. Hopefully that will continue.  But the recent posting of Balancing the Basin leaves some doubt as to how the Corps may respond to a drought should one occur.  Please don't hesitate to let Colonel Tickner know how much we appreciate current lake level control and how important it is for him to continue this approach to managing the basin.