CORPS CONTINUES TO DEMONSTRATE EXCELLENT CONTROL OF LAKE LEVEL

Looking at release rates I was surprised to see that they are at levels previously reserved for emergency conditions.  I grow hopeful that Col. Tickner is factoring in recreation in managing the Savannah River Basin.   Following previous practices our lakes would be dropping like a rock right now.  But instead the levels are being maintained within 6" of full pool.

It seems to Save Our Lakes Now that this is an excellent way to control the basin:

• River flows are varying the way nature intended rather than being held artificially constant.
• Environmental concerns are protected as long as releases are in excess of the 3600cfs demonstrated to have no substantial environmental impact downstream
• Water quality and water supply needs are also being met at release rates in excess of 3600cfs.
• Destruction of precious fresh water by releasing it to the ocean is being kept to a minimum.
• The dollar value gained by power production is being kept in line with the dollar value lost from decreased real estate values and destruction to recreational infrastructure around the lakes.

Please let Col. Tickner know our thoughts here.  We owe him a tremendous vote of thanks if he is responsible for these improvements.  If the changes are coincidental and not intended, maybe making him aware of our thoughts will help make these changes permanent.

REVISITING THE PROPOSAL FOR 2' WINTER DRAW DOWNS INSTEAD OF 4'

As I'm sure most of you are aware the corps continues to do a sterling job of maintaining lake levels. 
We certainly commend them on this and hope they will not hesitate to go to minimum release rates to hold level as much as possible if we get into another drought.  On a different note, there was an interesting post on Balancing the Basin by Billy Birdwell that could serve as a great argument to go to a 2' drawdown rather than a 4' drawdown in the winters. Quoting from Billy's post

"Our water managers don’t rely solely on computer models or theories, but on decades of working in this basin under a wide range of conditions. They’ve seen floods, droughts, heat waves, ice storms, tropical storms, and years of other weather.

Our water managers are scientist-engineers and draw on the latest scientific methods as well as years of real-world observations to accomplish all their missions in the most efficient way possible. Although they don’t have ‘crystal balls’ to consult, they actually have something better – science tempered with experience and insight."
~Billy Birdwell, Corporate Communications Office

So far as years of real-world observations, from the time Thurmond was built until Hartwell came on the scene a 4' drawdown was used in the winter. The total area rain runoff comes from remains unchanged.  It is the whole basin from the mountains to the Thurmond Dam.  The difference now is that we have both Hartwell and Russell collecting that runoff in addition to Thurmond.  Using that science tempered with experience Billy talks about, a 2' drawdown now should be equivalent to the 4' drawdown used before Hartwell was built.  In other words the amount of runoff remains unchanged but the amount of space to collect that runoff is now twice what it used to be.