CORPS OF ENGINEERS GUILTY OF GROSS MISMANAGEMENT OF LAKE THURMOND

The Corps of Engineers is guilty of gross mismanagement of Lake Thurmond. Let me enumerate the evidence:

o First the Corps is a professional Engineering organization and thereby owes the public who are paying their salaries professional behavior. Because of their level of expertise they can be held accountable for making decisions that are consistent with good engineering practices. Just as Doctors can be held accountable for their procedures and decisions, the Corps is accountable for following failed procedures and making poor decisions. They have been offered a very basic solution to the lake problem but rather than evaluate the recommended solution using the engineering judgment they are capable of, they hide behind ridiculous excuses.

o Second the Corps has been fully informed of the disasters caused by their inappropriate control of Lake Thurmond Lake levels. They have been shown that the cost of the drastic drop in lake levels in 2006,7, and 8 totaled in excess of a billion dollars to upstream businesses and property values. Instead of recognizing the magnitude of the costs which would justify immediate corrective measures they pretend they need studies to determine the magnitude of the losses. As a professional engineering organization they should not be permitted to act ignorant of the huge losses they've caused. Furthermore the loss in confidence that has occured regarding the Lakes will require a huge publicity effort coupled with immediate correction of the drought control plan to turn these losses around. None of these can start because the Corps pleads ignorance and lack of capability. A competent engineering firm would not be so impotent.

o Third the losses experienced upstream are minor compared to the potential losses that would have occured if Lake Thurmond hit the level where the river would no longer have flows of 3600cfs or greater. If Lake Thurmond had dropped a few more feet as it would have if the drought had continued, releases could have dropped to as low as 500cfs which would be a disaster for everyone depending on the Savannah River. Ignoring this and refusing to correct the situation is criminal. Yet the Corps blindly continues with their outdated drought plan pretending that only the upstream interests are at risk and ignoring the potential for a future disaster downstream. Instead of informing downstream interests how close they came to disaster, the corps is childishly adjusting flows willy nilly because "someone" feels they need higher flows than 3600cfs.

When asked if they understand the argument Col. Edward Kertis responded with "we got it". He even claimed that he was tired of seeing the argument saying sarcastically that he heard it all 75 times we said it . When asked why he insists on ignoring our requests he throws up fictitious arguments about how he is worried about DO (dissolved oxygen) or side tracks the issue referring to past studies costing millions that he says need to be finished (that he knows aren't going to be done because of a lack of funding). He knows full well these studies can not do any better than the actual live test of 3600cfs run for over a year with no deleterious effects. Besides, based on the magnitude of the problems and the fact that people are hurting around the lakes from lost confidence in them staying up in level, the very least that the Corps should do is initiate temporary changes correcting the problem until further study can be done. Instead the Corps refuses to make the requested changes leaving the area unable to rid itself of a bad taste that is retarding a comeback and future growth while at the same time risking future disaster.