WHY DOES OUR LAKE LEVEL DILEMMA CONTINUE

Thurmond and Hartwell should be famous Recreation Spots with tremendous growth potential.  But the horrible lake level control during droughts has and is destroying our reputation which in turn is destroying recreation along our lakes.

The Corps has done two studies of what poor lake level control does to our economics.  But both were badly flawed.  The first study was so highly restricted in what variables to measure that they measured the economic variations of surrounding counties rather than what was happening to communities along the lakes. Both the first and second study were badly flawed because they only looked at variations inside the period of a horrible reputation. The true measure would be to look at where our recreational infrastructure could be with great level control.  That of course is impossible to measure from inside the time of poor level controls.

Congress in the 80's added recreation to the mix of things the Corps is responsible for on our lakes.  Any fool should recognize that protecting recreation can only be accomplished by protecting the infrastructure needed for recreation to occur. The major cause of our dilemma is THE CORPS REFUSES TO PROTECT THE BASIC ELEMENTS OF RECREATION AND OUR CONGRESSMEN REFUSE TO CORRECT THEM. For example the Corps when questioned often explains that fishing is fine and therefore recreation is fine.  All anyone needs to do to understand what I mean is look at the Grand Strand on the coast of SC. Try telling them they would be a famous recreation areas without all the infrastructure such as real estate and hotels and motels involved in accommodating the public.  Try telling them that a bad reputation such as poor lake level control has no impact on that infrastructure.

CONTACT NUMBERS FOR CONGRESSMEN ASSOCIATED WITH OUR LAKES

I have received numerous requests for the names and contact info for the three congressmen associated with the Savannah River Basin.  They are:

Rick Allen in Augusta Ga.
     Washington DC office 202-225-2823
      Augusta GA office 706-228-1980

Jody Hice in Thomson GA
      Washington DC office 202-225-4101
      Thomson GA office 770-207-1776

Jeff Duncan in Anderson SC
      Washington DC office 202-225-5301
      Anderson SC office 864-224-7401


We have dealt with Jeff Duncan repeatedly but to no effect.  We met with Jody Hice only once but we have never heard any further from him.  Rick Allen is the newest member of congress and we have never met with him on the subject of the lakes.

Donald Trump has demonstrated that he has no patience for the Corps and correctly blames the Corps for the water shortages in California.  I feel he would champion our cause if we could get our concerns to him but in view of all he has on his plate right now that may take years to come about.

THREE CONGRESSMEN AND ONE CORPS COLONEL HAVE US HUNG OUT TO DRY

We are 10ft below full pool during the wet season.  Short of a miracle our lakes will be destroyed again with horrendous lake levels this summer.  The cost to recreation interests is unforgivable.  The Corps of Engineers is demonstrating incompetency in protecting recreation which is a mandate from congress issued over 30 years ago. Our congressmen are supposed to be working for us, not the corps, yet every time this situation arises they listen to the corps and not us thus permitting incompetency.

Based on past experience the Corps snows our congressmen with double talk when they discuss options to fix the problem.  First the corps makes the false claim that real estate around the shores of our lakes has nothing to do with recreation.  Ditto for the economic health of marinas, docs sitting on dry land, campgrounds no longer attractive, boat  ramps inaccessible, marina profits. Add that to the fact that no self respecting hotel, motel, or restaurant wants to build on our lakes due to a history of poor level control. The corps' claim that these have nothing to do with recreation is like saying airports have nothing to do with airplanes.

Meetings between our congressmen and the corps without Save Our Lakes Now represented are a waste of time because only one side of the argument is represented.  Save Our Lakes Now has been involved with this problem since 2007 and many of its members even longer than that.  We are responsible for getting rid of tons of ridiculous excuses the Corps has used in the past in refusing to address this problem. We would be more than happy to sit in on any discussions between our congressmen and the Corps to make sure both sides of the argument are known.

To illustrate some of the incompetence exhibited by the Corps, look at how the Corps repeatedly abuses both flood control and lake levels at the same time when the river is swollen downstream from rains and they continue releasing water from drought starved lakes. As engineers the Corps should be able to balance releases with rainfall downstream to prevent flooding downstream while allowing low lake levels caused by a drought to improve. Inability or refusal to do so puts their competence as engineers in question.