CORPS SHOWING TOTAL DISRESPECT FOR RECREATION

If we assume the job of the Corps is truly engineering rather than operators blindly following a written procedure, we have to assume the Corps is failing totally in their management of the Savannah River Basin.  The damages they are doing with lake levels is comparable to the way the EPA shut down coal mining.  Only difference is the methodology of the EPA with coal has some saving grace if you are a environmental or global warming addict whereas there is no saving grace for the way the Corps keeps destroying our basin.

For the sake of brevity I will site just a few glaring engineering omissions.

1. right now the rivers below Thurmond dam are swelled from recent rains. Contradictory to good engineering practice the corps continues to release 3600cfs rather than shut down releases for a while to allow the lakes to recover.
2. previously when the lakes started down below full pool the corps held to elevated release rates rather than conserving lake levels by dropping releases to the minimum demonstrated to be safe for downstream interests.
3. in their planning for the future with the harbor expansion the corps totally ignored the fact that the Augusta lock and dam needs repair to avoid severe damages upstream.  Rather than concern themselves with recreational and Augusta interests they did extensive planning for building a fish ladder.

These omissions by engineers in the business world would be subject to law suit and the engineers involved would be reprimanded severely and probably lose their jobs. We need to hold the Corps to the same level of professional performance or eliminate the word engineer in their title and appoint engineers to oversee the work of the Corps.

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WHAT GOOD LAKE MANAGEMENT WOULD LOOK LIKE

Up to now we have simply quoted back to the Corps of Engineers what their own guidelines say for protecting recreation interests with a more reasonable drought plan.  Now that a new administration is taking charge let's take a quick look at real protection for Lakes Thurmond, Hartwell, and Russell. The basis for said protection is ending the horrific waste of fresh water and maintaining the lakes as full as possible.  At present the Corps is going at this backwards and we come close to destroying our lakes every few years as droughts occur.

To end this repeated destruction let's try a different approach:

• Tighten or eliminate the discharge of harmful pollutants to the Savannah River from all the plants below Augusta, GA. Instead of simply pumping pollutants produced by these plants directly to the river, use basic Chemical and Civil Engineering to get the levels to the point that the water is still useable downstream even during extreme droughts. As an example modern day sewage plants release potable water through such measures.
• Use the same guidelines for hydro power generation that are used for wind and solar.  Said power should be dependent on rain supply.
• Store water as necessary and modify take off points from the Savannah River for cities downstream to ensure adequate water supply in severe droughts.
• Stop trying to artificially improve on nature with controlled river flows that exceed rain inputs. Benefit to people should be the basis (eg. flood control) rather than trying to protect some plant or animal even when such protection is damaging to the public.

Using this approach would allow us to keep our lakes basically full at all times and prevent the damaging effects of ridiculous EPA or power production guidelines. Not only would this approach benefit the Savannah River Basin but it would eliminate the horrible disasters being experienced with lakes out West.

WHERE ARE OUR POLITCIANS NOW THAT THE LAKES ARE DOWN AGAIN

Apparently our politicians who vociferously protested the low lake levels a couple of years ago are not aware that this is happening again.  Perhaps they are too tied up with the upcoming elections. I suggest we all contact them and make them aware that the Corps has once again refused to decrease release rates in time to help avoid drastic drops in lake levels.  They need to hear how bad the levels are.  They need to hear that all the excuses the Corps used to use as to why they could not decrease release rates sooner have been debunked. At one time the Corps used to try to confuse the politicians with 10 excuses.  One by one we have shown these don't hold water (pun intended).

CHALLENGE TO CORPS CONCERNING LAKE LEVELS

FOLLOWING IS A COMMENT PLACED ON THE RECENT BALANCING THE BASIN.  IT IS PERTINENT TO THE PROBLEMATIC DROUGHT PLAN THE CORPS INSISTS ON USING AND MIRRORS THE THOUGHTS OF SAVE OUR LAKES NOW:

The Corps with their work following hurricane Matthew has once again demonstrated their capability to do the job well.  If they would now address the yo yo lake levels that keep destroying the reputation of the SRB from the stand point of recreation they could again claim a great victory.  All the impediments are now out of the way.  Past experience from droughts have demonstrated that 3600cfs is safe to downstream interests and SEPA admits they do not need the corps to hit the arbitrary power quotas which are based on normal rainfall.  Now all the Corps needs to do is take charge and decrease release rates to 3600cfs (lower may be possible after the drought study is complete) anytime the lakes can not be maintained at full pool. We look forward to that time.

CORPS CLAIM ABOUT HAVING TO MEET SEPA QUOTAS IS NOT TRUE

Common knowledge from multiple sources have assured us that SEPA can live with whatever  gallons per second is forecasted by USACE.  In the past we have had excuses of environmental impact, dissolved oxygen levels in the harbor, industrial needs for water, etc. etc. causing the Corps to follow the current drought plan.  One by one we have eliminated these excuses by talking to the experts on these subjects and as a result the only excuse the Corps now has for not dropping to 3600cfs when the lakes start down is power quotas with SEPA.

We knew from the past that top management from SEPA told colonel Kertis when he was commander of the SRB that they preferred the lakes remain as full as possible so they could call on us for peaking power at times of large demand.  We know that because we were sitting in the room with Colonel Kertis when he called SEPA.  We never anticipated then that the corps would finally end up with power quotas as their only excuse or we would have done more with that statement when Kertis was here.  Since the corps is now blaming their refusal to reduce release rates to 3600cfs when the lakes start down on power quotas, we did further research on SEPA's needs. We now have found that SEPA can live with whatever release rates the Corps needs to use.

As you all know recreation is one of the issues congress has told the Corps they need to protect.  Anyone knowledgeable about our lakes knows that recreation includes all the homes built on the banks of the lakes, concessionaires such as the marinas who give access to the lakes, and the ability for the population at large to come here to enjoy all the various water sports.  We need to demand that the corps finally do their job and protect recreation.  When they use SEPA as their excuse we now know that is not a valid reason to keep destroying our lakes.

TIME FOR ACTION ON DROUGHT PLAN

In the past after the lakes were down more than 10 ft we've seen both Governors and all our congressmen do photo ops at the lakes and call for the Corps to be more reasonable in their management of the lakes.  At that time the Corps had so many excuses for not changing the drought plan that they created an impenetrable fog of excuses and our politicians were convinced to wait for results of a major study before any changes could be made.

Since that time we have eliminated all the excuses except meeting power quotas. Basically the Corps is justifying destroying billions of gallons of fresh water and destroying the recreational infrastructure of our lakes because they "WANT TO" meet their power quotas.  But if you look closely at what is involved that makes no sense. 

• SEPA depends on our lakes for peaking power, not daily quotas. 
• When you look at the impact on our recreational infrastructure from the horrible reputation we have due to poor lake level control it is far greater than any potential savings to the customer base of SEPA. 
• Simple logic says it is foolish to destroy any more fresh water (it all ends up in the ocean as salt water) than you really need to.
• All other forms of renewable energy are limited to the laws of nature.  When the sun doesn't shine solar power falls short.  When there is no wind, wind power falls short.  It only makes sense that hydropower should be treated the same because we have no way to produce water other than from rain.

In my opinion it is time for our politicians to wake up and come to our rescue.  Please contact your congressman and your governor to let them know we need help now before the lakes are destroyed once again by foolish management practices. Technically what needs to happen now is for the Corps to immediately fall back to 3600cfs release rate any time the lakes fall below full pool.  That release rate has been stated by the corps to have no significant environmental impact based on the many times we've actually operated at that level in past droughts. Hopefully the studies in progress will permit even lower release rates as long as we don't lock ourselves in due to power quotas.

COMMENTS RECENTLY POSTED ON BALANCING THE BASIN

For those of you who are not reading the balancing the basin posts by the Corps, you may find a comment just submitted by Jerry Clontz to the latest posting of interest:

Jerry Clontz ·

University of Virginia

What justification does the Corps use for releasing more than 3600cfs from Thurmond with the lakes down and not enough rain to match releases? If power quotas are the only justification, how can you justify the destruction of billions of gallons of fresh water and the massive financial losses incurred by the recreational infrastructure as we continue to have a reputation of poor lake level control? Assuming you quote financial losses that would occur from missing your power quotas, please give the actual increase in power cost SEPA would expect had we held back to 3600cfs releases.