CORPS STILL ISN'T GETTTING THE MESSAGE

Colonel Kertis was honored at a picnic in Lincolnton last week because of a number of things he did in 2008 to help with the drought. He stopped all flows from Thurmond dam at one point when the river downstream was swollen from rain. Later he stopped all releases from Lake Hartwell for several weeks to rebalance the lakes. And he has maintained release rates below those required by the drought plan. However the Corps is still falling short of managing the lakes in the manner needed. The communities around the lakes still suffer huge economic losses because of lost confidence in the way the lakes are managed. And the communities along the Savannah River are still at risk of losing the river flows they need should the drought continue or return.

Colonel Kertis demonstrated his lack of understanding of our needs in several statements. At one point he defended continuing releases of 4000cfs vs 3600cfs by stating that this only represents 4" a month or a foot of level over the summer months. This is indicative of the kind of thinking that has led to depleting the lakes to the bottom of the conservation pool in the past. These incidences also happened only 4" a month extended over a couple of years time (24 months times 4" a month leads to 8' loss in level which in turn leads to 16' loss when you drop the lakes 4 ft in the fall and don't reduce flows until the lakes drop to trigger level 2).

Further Colonel Kertis justified holding the lakes at 4,000cfs by indicating pressure from downstream interests to increase flows. It would be far better if he told downstream interests to be patient and let him refill the lakes before increasing flows. Once the lakes are full they can have any release rate they wish.

Colonel Kertis promised copies of letters and/or names and addresses of those who are insisting on higher flows. That was Tuesday and to date we have not received these. If we do not receive these by the middle of next week we will request this information under the freedom of information act.

To sum up, please continue to ask your congressmen and the Corps "Why not go to 3600cfs now?"