CORPS REFUSES TO FOLLOW GOOD ENGINEERING PRINCIPLES

When our president or our congressmen or our senators fail to do the job we have hired them to do everyone recognizes criticism is appropriate.  Yet in commenting on the actions of the Corps managing the Savannah River Basin we frequently receive comments like "you are not showing proper respect for the office".  And we also hear that since the Corps follows scientific principles they are obviously more qualified than we are to dictate how the system should be run.  At one time Col. Ed Kertis even told me we need to leave this up to the scientists. 

Let me qualify comments you will see in this blog in light of this kind of thinking.  The Corps is hired by congress and therefore us to do a good job managing the Savannah River Basin.  If they are doing a poor job they should receive criticism from the people who have hired them.  Further there are many engineers and scientists outside the Corps who are in a position to make judgments on how well the Corps is doing.  Save Our Lakes Now is careful to adhere strictly to sound engineering and scientific thinking and for the most part we use the Corps' own data to analyze how well our lakes are being managed.

The Corps has been charged by Congress to manage our lakes according to good principles for about 6 different areas of concern:

• Flood control
• Power production (following SEPA guidelines)
• Water quality
• Navigation
• Fish and Wildlife
• Recreation

We seriously question the soundness of the corps' judgment in a number of areas.  First they are too cautious when it comes to flood control, power production, water quality and fish and wildlife and second they are far too lax when it comes to recreation. Additionally the Corps claims they are not responsible for economic concerns but simple common sense says they do not have the right to wantonly destroy the economy of the areas around the lakes.  Literally the only reason they get away with ignoring the economic impact of their decisions is the exorbitant cost that would be involved in fighting them in court.

The measures it would take to protect recreation and the economy of the areas around the lakes have been fully demonstrated from the standpoint of both good engineering practice and scientific principle.  These measures would do no harm to the other areas the Corps is responsible for.  Yet the Corps adamantly refuses to adopt these measures.  In discussions with the Corps they have blamed Fish and Wildlife out of Athens and the GA DNR as not permitting them to make such changes.  However both these groups act only in an advisory capacity to the Corps. 

Speaking strictly from an economic viewpoint what right does the Army Corps of Engineers have to reign utter destruction down on the communities that are impacted by lake levels.  Speaking strictly from the stand point of Recreation what right does the Corps have to simply ignore this responsibility placed on them by the Congress of the United States 25 years ago.