Ten years ago the Corps had all kinds of excuses why they had to hold to the drought plan that keeps destroying our lake levels. Now, after we have debunked each of these excuses and after repeated droughts involving years of safe operation at 3600cfs release rate, we still get no relief. BASICALLY, ALTHOUGH CONGRESS CLEARLY INDICATED RECREATION AS ONE OF THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES, THE CORPS IGNORES RECREATION.
Give them a problem with power generation, water supply, water quality, fish and wildlife, or flood control and they have a plan in place to make changes in release rates or lake levels to protect these. Give them a problem with real estate along the shores of our lakes, docks, marinas, campgrounds, etc and they will assure you these are not their responsibility. In their minds recreation has nothing to do with these. This is like saying wings have nothing to do with flying an airplane. Unless and until we get them to accept these items as recreation the Corps will have an excuse to ignore us during a drought.
WE'VE TRIED EVERYTHING WE KNOW TO GET THE CORPS TO BE REASONABLE WITH RELEASE RATES DURING DROUGHTS AND PROTECT RECREATION. BUT THEY SIMPLY IGNORE US. THE BEST OPTION I KNOW OF IS TO SOMEHOW GET OUR CONGRESSMEN TO UNDERSTAND THIS SCENARIO. UNTIL THEY DO THE CORPS SIMPLY SNOWS THEM EACH TIME THEY LOOK INTO OUR PROBLEM. FIRST THE CORPS INSISTS THEY NEED A MAJOR STUDY TO DETERMINE SAFE RELEASE RATES. IN REALITY THEY ALEADY KNOW ENOUGH FROM YEARS OF EXPERIENCE TO PROTECT RECREATION BY CHANGING RELEASE RATES. THEN THE CORPS DOES DOUBLE TALK ABOUT REAL ESTATE ETC. HAVING NOTHING TO DO WITH RECREATION.
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