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.

CURRENT STUDY WILL BE NO BENEFIT TO RECREATION UNLESS THE CORPS RETHINKS POWER PRODUCTION QUOTAS.

As long as the Corps holds to their current thinking on meeting power production quotas there is no hope of avoiding devastating damage to recreation from droughts regardless of how the current drought control studies play out.  This becomes obvious when you look at the refusal by the corps to drop releases to 3600cfs because of its impact on power production. We already know from repeated operation of months on end that the system will tolerate 3600cfs but the Corps refuses to drop releases to 3600cfs at the outset of a drought. Their reasoning is this would prevent them from meeting their power quotas. Hence even if the current studies show less than 3600cfs can be tolerated by the environment, Corps power quotas will prevent us benefiting from this information.

The basic problem is insistence on using more water than nature provides to produce power.  Wind and solar are both limited to what nature provides.  We need to do the same with hydropower to prevent wasting valuable reserves of fresh water and destruction to our recreational infrastructure.  Somehow we need to get congress and/or the corps thinking the same way. Simply limiting power production to the amount of water provided by rain would go a long way toward protecting our recreational infrastructure and it would prevent the horrendous waste of fresh water reserves that happens currently.

CORPS DROUGHT PLAN MATHMATICALLY ILLOGICAL

Save Our Lakes Now has repeatedly pleaded with the Corps to drop release rates to 3600cfs when lake levels can no longer be held at full pool.  The Corps adamantly refuses to do so and we repeatedly dive into devastating drops in lake levels that destroy the recreational infrastructure of our lakes.  When pressed on why they refuse, the rational comes down to meeting power quotas.  The Corps has stated repeatedly that there is no detrimental environmental impact from reducing releases to 3600 which leaves power production as the only variable they are protecting.

When you look at the logic of refusing to drop to 3600cfs at the beginning of a drought rather than wait until the lakes are already down more than 4', it really doesn't make sense.  The reason often given is they don't want the river to have to sustain release rates as low as 3600cfs any longer than necessary and they want to generate as much power as possible.  But they are actually extending the length of time at 3600 because the lakes end up much lower in level at the end of the drought which means it takes longer for them to refill.

It is obvious the current drought plan is a failure.  It is also obvious we can go to 3600cfs much quicker than the plan calls for.  Why then does the Corps insist on continuing to follow a failed plan. It has been suggested that the Corps has to follow the water manual.  But surely the Corps would have no problem convincing the powers that be to modify the plan based on what we've learned over the past 15 years.