IN CASE YOU ARE WONDERING ABOUT LAKE LEVELS

If you look at the release rates and elevations for Hartwell and Thurmond you will see the Corps is following their posted drought plan exactly.  If they had no engineering skills one would say they are doing a good job of following procedure.  But these guys have demonstrated time and time again that they have great engineering skill by maintaining lake levels to within 6" of the target elevation.  For literally months back when the fish were spawning they never deviated more than 6" from target even with all kinds of variations in rainfall and weather conditions.

My point.  The Corps knows that following this procedure leads to drastic drops in lake levels. It has put the whole system at peril and led to emergency measures 3 times in the last decade.  Knowing this, Save Our Lakes Now has to conclude the corps is failing in their mission and not doing a good job.  In view of their engineering skills and in view of their responsibilities they have failed to manage our lakes properly.

Pray for lots of rain this winter.  We certainly cannot depend on the Corps to protect us from another recreational disaster.  Literally hundreds of millions of dollars related to our recreational infrastructure will be lost again if we enter next spring in drought conditions.  It is a shame none of that money comes out of the pockets of the Corps of Engineers.  If it did I think it is safe to say they would make drastic changes to the way they are managing our lakes.

IS THE CORPS IGNORANT OR ARROGANT CONCERNING THE SAVANNAH RIVER BASIN

Congratulations to the Corps.  Our lakes are down 4' and it is only September.  You have succeeded in getting lake levels to the point where a drought like the one in 2008 will destroy the lakes again.  You have done this under the guise of power production quotas.  In doing so you will be guilty of throwing away hundreds of millions of dollars in recreational infrastructure to make less than 10 million dollars in power cost savings.  If it were your dollars you would not do this.  But it is our dollars (the people who have invested in the recreation infrastructure around the lakes) so you simply ignore the potential danger you have set in motion.

There are a number of ways to solve this dilemma.  One would be to give lake stakeholders an equal voice at the table where release rates are decided.  Another would be to require the Colonel and his staff to have their homes on Lake Thurmond or Lake Hartwell.  Even better would be to have them invest their life savings in recreational endeavors on the lakes.

Where are our governors on this?  Where are our congressmen and senators?  Congress dictated in the '80s that recreation be treated the same as the other responsibilities of the Corps.  During the last decade recreation was the only Corps responsibility to be destroyed and that happened 3 times.  Water quality, water supply, fish & wildlife protection, and flood control all survived.  The only other responsibility, Hydro Power production, is simply an economic consideration since SEPA can make up for power lost here without difficulty.  Wonder why the Corps says they refuse to let economics determine how they manage the lakes?  Sorry but that is simply not true. Power production is pure economics.