TIME FOR ACTION ON DROUGHT PLAN

In the past after the lakes were down more than 10 ft we've seen both Governors and all our congressmen do photo ops at the lakes and call for the Corps to be more reasonable in their management of the lakes.  At that time the Corps had so many excuses for not changing the drought plan that they created an impenetrable fog of excuses and our politicians were convinced to wait for results of a major study before any changes could be made.

Since that time we have eliminated all the excuses except meeting power quotas. Basically the Corps is justifying destroying billions of gallons of fresh water and destroying the recreational infrastructure of our lakes because they "WANT TO" meet their power quotas.  But if you look closely at what is involved that makes no sense. 

• SEPA depends on our lakes for peaking power, not daily quotas. 
• When you look at the impact on our recreational infrastructure from the horrible reputation we have due to poor lake level control it is far greater than any potential savings to the customer base of SEPA. 
• Simple logic says it is foolish to destroy any more fresh water (it all ends up in the ocean as salt water) than you really need to.
• All other forms of renewable energy are limited to the laws of nature.  When the sun doesn't shine solar power falls short.  When there is no wind, wind power falls short.  It only makes sense that hydropower should be treated the same because we have no way to produce water other than from rain.

In my opinion it is time for our politicians to wake up and come to our rescue.  Please contact your congressman and your governor to let them know we need help now before the lakes are destroyed once again by foolish management practices. Technically what needs to happen now is for the Corps to immediately fall back to 3600cfs release rate any time the lakes fall below full pool.  That release rate has been stated by the corps to have no significant environmental impact based on the many times we've actually operated at that level in past droughts. Hopefully the studies in progress will permit even lower release rates as long as we don't lock ourselves in due to power quotas.

COMMENTS RECENTLY POSTED ON BALANCING THE BASIN

For those of you who are not reading the balancing the basin posts by the Corps, you may find a comment just submitted by Jerry Clontz to the latest posting of interest:

Jerry Clontz ·

University of Virginia

What justification does the Corps use for releasing more than 3600cfs from Thurmond with the lakes down and not enough rain to match releases? If power quotas are the only justification, how can you justify the destruction of billions of gallons of fresh water and the massive financial losses incurred by the recreational infrastructure as we continue to have a reputation of poor lake level control? Assuming you quote financial losses that would occur from missing your power quotas, please give the actual increase in power cost SEPA would expect had we held back to 3600cfs releases.