CORPS ACTIONS AND WORDS EXPOSE FAILURE TO RESPECT RECREATION

Look at recent publications by the Corps and they show extreme concern for flooding.  This is one of the seven basin issues the corps is charged with protecting.  For example the most recent Balancing the Basin expresses high levels of concern and advance planning because the weather services are predicting high rain levels in the next few months due to unusual warming in the Pacific Ocean.

Look at publications over the past decade and you will see high levels of concern for Hydro Power, Water Quality, Water Supply, and Fish & Wildlife.  Navigation, rightly so, is no longer a major concern and it is seldom spoken of.  The only responsibility the Corps repeatedly ignores is Recreation.

Note that for each of the concerns other than recreation the Corps uses the best information available to guide their actions.  For example nowhere do they propose studies prior to making changes to protect against flooding.

Although the Corps knows full well how to avoid catastrophic drops in lake level they insist they cannot use this information without waiting years for studies.  We have at least 3 times in the past 10 or so years where release rates of 3600cfs proved sufficient for months on end.  The Corps even claims no impact on the environment from this release rate in their published plan for operation should a drought exceed the capacity of the conservation pools for Thurmond and Hartwell. Dropping to this release rate anytime lake levels cannot be maintained at full pool from available rains would go a long way toward protecting the recreational infrastructure at times of drought.

When you look at Corps publications explaining how they maintain all their other responsibilities you see statements to the effect that they seek approval from all the various entities representing hydro power, water quality, water supply, and fish & wildlife.  Not only do they fail to respond to any cries from the recreational infrastructure, the one group excluded from evaluating all their studies is recreation.

When pressed the Corps pleads ignorance concerning how much damage lake levels do to the recreational infrastructure.  They even made feeble attempts to show no financial damage from lake levels more than 10ft below full pool.  Simple logic tells anyone with common sense that low lake levels have a huge financial impact on recreation.  Take for example the numerous retirement communities around our lakes.  If you were retiring and looking for a great place to enjoy your retirement would you go to a lake where your boat dock will be frequently on dry land?  The same logic can be applied to investments in any part of the recreational infrastructure.  And not surprisingly a quick look at the financial health of these shows massive damages from poor drought controls.

Unfortunately our congressmen who could force major improvements for recreation are buying the fallacious claim by the Corps that major studies are needed before they can improve things.  We do not propose blindly changing things just to improve recreation.  We are pleading for the Corps to use the knowledge they have already gained from recent droughts to minimize damages to the recreational infrastructure by droughts.  Still further improvements may be possible from studies but use of existing knowledge is needed to protect recreation until those studies can be completed.