REVIEW OF 3100CFS COMMENTS ILLUMINATING

The Corps of Engineers requested comments from all lake stake holders before they ran a test of 3100cfs from Thurmond in November - February, 2008. Since we are requesting adopting 3600cfs as a standard release anytime Lake Thurmond is 2' or more below fill level, we thought it would be enlightening to look at what everybody claimed might be wrong with 3100cfs.

Based on information supplied by the Corps of Engineers everyone should be fine with a release rate of 3600cfs. The manufacturing and power generating facilities along the Savannah River all indicated they might have to make some modifications to their water intake facilities at 3100cfs but that they had no problems with 3600cfs. This included International Paper, SRS, Georgia Power and Georgia Pacific. The city of Augusta public utilities indicated no problems with 3600 and as we now know they are set up to take water out of the river instead of the canal if they encounter a problem.

The only people that had a real quarrel with 3100cfs were the mill and others associated with the Augusta Canal and the environmental organizations such as the NOAA who were concerned that 3100 "MIGHT" endanger some fish species. But again even these organizations were not having a problem with 3600cfs.

So far as the Augusta Canal, there is a very simple solution to their concerns. The environmentalists insist on 1500cfs across the shoals. The shoals flow is whatever is left over after you subtract the flow to the canal from the releases from Lake Thurmond. If you simply control the flow through the shoals at 1500cfs whenever the releases from Thurmond are reduced to 3600cfs and let the rest go through the canal you satisfy the environmentatlists and the canal will be fine. Matter of fact it could be argued that the flow through Thurmond could even be reduced to 3100 and the canal would still be fine but we don't need to argue this point since we only want to go down to 3600cfs when the Lake level is down.

As for the Mill in the canal that generates electricity from canal flows, there is no way to justify destroying real estate values, businesses and recreation associated with Lake Thurmond for the meager savings the Mill realizes from generating power from the canal. But here again the argument is mute because at 3600cfs even the mill can do their thing.