HERE WE GO WITH THE CORPS USING TAINTED LOGIC CONCERNING OUR RENEWABLE POWER SOURCE

Looking at the projections for releases from Lake Thurmond one first gets the impression that the corps is doing a great job at balancing the lakes and projected lake levels aren't THAT BAD.  But let's rethink this.  The only reason for releases that are greater than the water nature is providing by rain is power production. Nothing else is at risk. Hydrologic power production is a great thing because it uses renewable energy the same way solar power and wind power do. But, and this is a major but, water is not renewable when you use more than nature is providing. A prime example is what happened out West with major cities in trouble on their water supply.

Aside from power production the other thing that can get you in trouble is unrealistic environmental concerns which are not a problem for our basin at this time.

Save Our lakes Now would like to see the Corps rethink their drought management plan.  We propose that first off power quotas be overruled by whether those levels of production will require more water to be released than nature is providing from rain. We recognize this has a paper cost to it but in reality the actual increase in cost to power users is far less than the dollar cost of destroying the recreational infrastructure (campgrounds, marinas, businesses connected with the lakes, real estate values for homes on the lake, etc.) around our lakes.  Second we propose that lake levels be maintained at full pool as long as that can be done with the minimum release rate demonstrated to be safe to the environment over the last 15 years (3600cfs in hot months and 3100cfs in cold months).

There are numerous reasons we can cite as to why we think this is a better approach than currently being used by the Corps.  But just the preservation of fresh water should be sufficient to support our argument.  Fresh water is more valuable than gold.  Just ask the people in California who are struggling to get by because the rivers and lakes there were allowed to drop to drastic levels using unrealistic thinking about protecting the environment and wasteful releases of water to the sea (most people don't stop and think but the water released from our dams is being destroyed as fresh water because it is going directly to the sea).

CURRENT RELEASE PRACTICES DOCUMENT THAT OUR PROPOSALS WORK

Save Our Lakes Now has pleaded for a drought plan that keeps the lakes as full as possible.  The way releases have been handled recently demonstrate that this approach is feasible.  Basically all we have been saying is hold lake levels at full pool as long as release rates do not drop below the minimum value (3600cfs) that has been demonstrated to be safe during the past decade.  We do not need to wait until further studies of drought management have been done to justify this approach.  With regard to release rates the purpose of  studies is to determine more precisely what the lowest acceptable release rate is for the future.

The beauty of this approach is:

• flows in the river basically match what nature has been doing for eons with the exception that the extremes of nature which can have devastating effects are avoided (eg. no flows below 3600 cfs which we know we can live with).
• lake levels should remain within 10ft of full pool even in extreme conditions.  And a drop of 10ft, while undesirable from an esthetic stand point, do not destroy the recreational infrastructure for the lakes.
• fresh water which is truly more valuable than gold (eg. look at what is happening in California) is preserved to the maximum extent possible.

While power production quotas may be missed for the Savannah River Basin, power at basically the same price will still be available from the power grid.  One way to look at power production is that hydropower is a renewable source of energy like wind and solar. As such hydropower should only be expected when nature provides adequate rain.  As with wind and solar, when nature doesn't cooperate you need to look to other sources of power production rather than destroy precious fresh water.