Our congressmen can help get the Corps to act more responsibly on lake level control but they do not have a good understanding of what lever to pull to make this happen. We do. If you will help, maybe we can educate our congressmen and get the help needed. Emails or phone calls or letters to your congressmen can make this happen if enough of us get behind the effort.
Two major things the Corps ignores are keeping the Corps from making the final changes needed to minimize drastic lake level drops. They are the gross waste of fresh water from higher than necessary releases and the economic impact on businesses connected with providing recreation around the lakes such as the marinas and real estate values for homes around the lakes.
Looking at the waste of fresh water, the Corps is releasing 4200cfs from Thurmond right now instead of holding back to the minimum demonstrated to have no environmental impact which is 3600cfs. Every drop of fresh water released is doomed to become salt water as it enters the harbor at Savannah. This 600cfs difference represents the unnecessary destruction of 400million gallons of fresh water each day.
Looking at the impact on businesses and real estate we are talking hundreds of millions of dollars any time the lakes drop more than 6ft. The full impact is much more than is obvious looking at monthly or even yearly economic data. The full impact is in destruction of the reputation of the whole region over a period of years that will take on the order of 10 years with good lake levels to correct.
The Corps evaluation of the recent study to determine an optimum drought control plan fails to include destruction of fresh water and economic impact. If the Corps were instructed to consider these by our congressmen the resulting optimum drought plan would be the one we have espoused for years; drop to minimum safe release rates any time lake levels cannot be held to full pool. Please help us educate our congressmen about this. Save Our Lakes Now has informed our congressmen of this but we are only one voice against the voice of a very persuasive Corps. Hundreds or thousands of voices are needed to convince our congressmen that something needs to happen now.
One other thing our congressmen need to understand is the plan we are recommending will not do any damage to the harbor at Savannah. Recent information indicates some uninformed organizations such as the state chamber of commerce fear any change might do harm to the harbor and thereby have a negative impact on a major source of income for the state. We would be glad to meet with anyone having this concern to prove to them that such a concern is unwarranted.
