The title of Engineer as used in industry implies constantly using the best data available to maximize growth of the businesses they are associated with. Growth for the Savannah River Basin is tied to it's recreational infrastructure. Because of repeated drops in lake level in excess of 14', recreational money, whether parks and campgrounds, the various concessionaires who provide access to the lakes, or real estate built for the purpose of enjoying the recreational aspects of the basin, is going elsewhere. If this were for only a year or two one could reason that more data is needed. But this has been going on for over 10 years and the Corps is making none of the changes that are obviously safe. Instead they insist on waiting years more to get more data before changing the drought plan. From what I've seen the fact that we haven't already made changes we know to be safe is a bad omen for what they will do after the studies are complete.
I have deliberately left the argument of SEPA power needs out of this discussion because it is such a weak reason that it deserves no consideration:
- The actual increase in cost of power to the consumer is minor when it has to be obtained from other lakes and power sources.
- Even if the increased cost of power were substantial there is no way to justify obtaining that money by destroying the real estate values of all the people with houses around the lakes.
- SEPA has stated repeatedly that they want the lakes as full as possible because our power is primarily peaking power that comes on line during peak power consumption. That is endangered greatly when we let the lakes drop 14'
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