It's easy to get complacent about drought control when we are getting all the water we need this year to keep the lakes full. And the Corps, with a lot of hoopla has promised major improvement in their drought control plan making our concern over drought control low. But more tweaking to what the Corps is planning for drought control is needed.
When evaluating which plan to use based on all the studies done over the past couple of years, the Corps used a series of criteria where they simply looked at which plan gave the most positive changes for about 10 criteria they were looking at. For example they looked at flood control, dissolved oxygen in the river and harbor, what would make the fish the happiest, etc. Two plans won out. One was the one Save Our Lakes Now has been proposing for years and the other a slight modification to that plan where they do not start reduced flows until the lakes are down about 2'. The differences were miniscule between these two plans for the criteria used. Unfortunately two major criteria which would have changed the outcome were not evaluated. One is how much fresh water is thrown to the ocean before starting minimum releases and the other is which plan gives the best economic affect.
If the Corps considers amount of fresh water being thrown away (we are looking at billions of gals of fresh water a day) and/or the impact of low lake levels on economics of the lake community our proposed plan would win hands down. Our plan compared to the one they favor would add 2' to lake levels compared to the plan the corps is adopting during a heavy drought. This is because our plan reduces flows to the minimum as soon as the lakes start down whereas the plan the corps is currently planning on using doesn't reduce to minimum flows until the lakes drop 2'.
For some reason our congressmen and senators have chosen to stay out of the Corps plans for future drought plans. Any one of our senators or congressmen could demand that amount of fresh water being thrown to the sea and economics be considered. If that were to happen the corps would have to go with our plan which keeps the lades 2' higher in a severe drought. That plus the improvements already in the corps plans would vastly improve our lake levels I .
If you have personal contact with any of our senators or congressmen please encourage them to get into this enough to at least learn what the arguments are. The best plan will not win out unless they help.
