The good news is the Corps has agreed to change their drought management plan on a trial basis to reduce flows from Lake Thurmond to 3100cfs during the months of October to February. The bad news is they don't plan to do this unless Lake Thurmond reaches 14 ft below full pool.
We had requested this flow be adopted anytime Lake Thurmond is 2' below full pool during the months of October to February. Waiting until the lake is 14' low is like the proverbial "closing the barn doors after the cows are gone". Basically upstream economic issues and recreational interests are destroyed whenever Lake Thurmond drops more than 10ft.
On the plus side the Corps' argument for using 3100cfs mirrors what we've been saying from our review of information gathered from a freedom of information act request. When we requested all comments from downstream interests concerning the affects of 3100cfs we found that no one had a problem with that release rate. The Corps arguments for adopting 3100cfs on a trial basis supports our conclusions. Furthermore the Corps admits that there should be no significant affect on environmental issues.
The only omission from the Corps' argument is the affects on economic and recreational interests upstream when Lake Thurmond levels fall more than 10'. They use the words economic and recreation issues but fail to address these concerns. So it would appear we are closer now than ever to getting the Corps to recognize the wisdom of our requests for 3600cfs (3100 during October to February) whenever Lake Thurmond is 2' below full pool. All we need now is to get them to recognize economic and recreation issues upstream and they will be forced to come to the same conclusions we have about how best to manage our lakes.
The Corps is requesting public comments on their proposal for 3100cfs before noon on October 30th. Please flood their desks with the fact that they need to consider the impact of waiting beyond 2' below full before implementing 3100cfs during October to February. The addresses to use are: email address - william.g.bailey@usace.army.mil, fax number - (912) 652-5787, And mailing address - U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District, Savannah Planning Unit, Attn: William Bailey, PO Box 889, Savannah, GA 31402-0889.
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