CORPS PROJECTIONS SHOW RETURN TO RELEASE RATES THAT CAN DESTROY BASIN

As most of you know lake stakeholders are not represented at the Corps meetings where release rates are decided. In our opinion lake stakeholders should be represented at these meetings by someone they elect or by someone who has a large investment in the recreational infrastructure around the lakes. Currently we have a few people the Corps uses to explain to us why they are doing things the way they are.  But what is needed is someone the Corps has to listen to when it comes to lake interests in balancing the basin.

The current projections for Lake Thurmond and Lake Hartwell show the lakes dropping over the next few months when the levels could be maintained safely by controlling release rates.  Release rates for Thurmond which are the controlling factor for levels on all three lakes are projected at 6500cfs immediately which is well above the amount of water being supplied by Nature. This sets us up for another drastic drop in lake levels if a drought hits.  Since we have no voice at the Corps meetings I thought it might be interesting to run through what our input would be if we were present. 

1. In our opinion release rates need to be set to maintain full lakes unless that rate falls below the 3600cfs demonstrated to have no significant negative impact downstream of Thurmond Dam.  We demonstrated in the three major droughts of the last decade that dropping the lakes when there was no drought caused us to lose control when a drought did occur. Allowing the lakes to drop 4ft and more when the level could be maintained safely causes severe damage from low lake levels when a drought does occur.
2. Environmentally this makes sense because nature is controlling things until release rates less than 3600cfs are required and we avoid the environmental nightmare of dropping the lakes so low that emergency measures and  low flows are required for excessive periods of time. 
3. From a conservation standpoint this makes sense because we don't waste any more fresh water than is absolutely necessary.  Higher release rates destroy much more fresh water than is saved by all the water conservation measures in use today in the Savannah River Basin.
4. If power production quotas is the reason for increased flows, the total money saved from producing power from our lakes rather than from off the grid is peanuts compared to the costs to real estate and recreational infrastructure from low lake levels. Besides, our primary purpose in terms of power production is for peaking power.  With the drastically low lake levels caused by irresponsible lake level control, peaking power capability is endangered.
5. From the stand point of recreational infrastructure and real estate losses it goes without saying that responsible lake level control in the manner used for the past several months is literally worth hundreds of millions of dollars.  And more importantly, once drastically low lake levels occur, it takes 3 or so years for recreation and real estate to recover.  We have only just begun to recoup from the last drought as evidenced by extreme hardships for everyone involved in recreation or who owns lake property.

For the past few months the Corps has shown us how easily they can maintain lake levels.  It's time for us to demand that they continue to do so.