Recent Meetings With New Corps Commander

I had the priviledge of being at meetings with the new Corps Commander on Monday evening at the LHA meeting in Anderson, Tuesday morning at a meeting for stakeholders interested in economics, and again Wednesday morning at a meeting for Marina owners. Colonel Hall brings a refreshing approach to managing the lakes and is making it obvious that he plans to be very proactive in saving as much lake water as possible when we are in drought conditions. He acknowledged repeatedly that everyone benefits when we keep the lakes as full as possible,

While we cannot expect everyone to see everything exactly the same, it was very encouraging to see Colonel Hall consider all stakeholder inputs. It is apparent he does not plan to make decisions based on closed door sessions with just a few special interest groups. The Corps is already using reduced flows from the dams below those called for in the old drought plan and they plan to factor in downstream flows so that we don't release any more water than is ablsolutely necessary (eg. when the river is swolen from rains downstream of the dam they plan to close off releases).

I am very optimistic about the future of our lakes.