CORP'S PUBLICITY GROSSLY MISLEADING

When asked about Sturgeon and how their livelihood is affecting lake level controls the Corps gave grossly misleading information. They quoted the fish and wildlife coordination act and reaffirmed how they are controlling the lakes based on many complex issues.

Following is a quote from what was just sent down about protecting Sturgeon:
The Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act (FWCA) provides the basic authority for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) involvement in evaluating impacts to fish and wildlife from proposed water resource development projects. It requires that fish and wildlife resources receive equal consideration to other project features. It also requires Federal agencies involved with water resource development projects to first consult with the FWS and State fish and wildlife agencies regarding the impacts on fish and wildlife resources, and provide for measures to mitigate these impacts.

First off please note that this is not what is happening. Fish and Wildlife resources are not receiving EQUAL consideration with lake real estate and business interests. They are instead receiving much more consideration than real estate and business interests. As an example the FWS and State fish and wildlife agencies are consulted on these matters whereas lake real estate and business interests are not consulted. We desperately need for this to be aired in the public arena so the Corps is forced to include lake interests in their discussions with groups like the FWS and State fish and wildlife agencies.

We need help from the local news media; TV, radio and newspaper. National news would be even better. If you have the ear of any of these please get them to at least read our blog site and talk to people like Tommy Lee who owns several marinas and knows first hand how the Corps is messing with business around the lake. Additionally increased public attention to this matter would force our political leaders to get real estate and business interests included in discussions of how to manage Lake levels.

As an example there is no good reason why land and business owners around Lakes Thurmond and Hartwell should be losing hundreds of Millions or possibly Billions of dollars in real estate and business interests without having any voice in how the water releases are handled. As pointed out in a recent blog post a large part of these very real losses are due to mismanagement of river flows at the Augusta Canal. If the canal which is about to be shut down for several months had no river flow the releases from Thurmond Dam could be reduced from 3100cfs to about 1500cfs.

Furthermore it is not reasonable to ask lake interests to be losing this kind of money simply because environmentalists think Sturgeon may need more flow than this to spawn. First off there is no reason to try to improve on mother nature when looking at fish spawning. As long as rain in = water to river the environmental impact of the dam is zero. Second off it is not fair to ask one segment of the population to spend this kind of money without even having a voice in the matter. There are other ways to accomodate Sturgeon spawning besides draining lakes Thurmond and Hartwell which would not unjustly affect only the residents and businesses around the lakes.