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.