RESPONSE TO BALANCING THE BASIN VIDEO ABOUT NEED FOR STUDIES

Stan Simpson is a great guy and nothing we say here should be taken as a criticism of him.  He works for the Corps and is bound by their guidelines.  It is those guidelines that we are taking exception to.

 

In the recent video from Balancing the Basin Stan Simpson explains how release rates from Lake Thurmond can affect the Savannah River System.  He is correct in that there are a lot of things we don’t know in detail about these affects.  However the jump from there to the assumption that the Corps is correctly using the knowledge they do have is misleading.  The fact is the Corps has tons of information they do know but refuse to  use.  And based on talking to the heads of GA and SC DNR they are not to blame for the Corps’ refusal to control lake levels within reason. 

Like Stan I also am an engineer.  Let’s take a look at a few examples of poor engineering practices by the Corps:

·       When Lake Thurmond was the only lake collecting runoff from all rains above Augusta, the Corps dropped its level 4’ during the winter to avoid flooding during the high runoff periods as you come out of the winter months.  Now there are 3 lakes to collect this run off so a 2’ drop would provide the same protection that 4’ used to.  Regardless of our pleas to change to 2’ so the lakes don’t start out a drought so low, the Corps adamantly refuses to make this change.  The result is we enter a drought 4’ below full pool instead of 2’.

·       There are hundreds of millions of dollars lost every major drought by the huge recreation infrastructure around the lakes.  Although congress has tasked the Corps with being responsible for recreation they ignore this wanton destruction in the drought control measures they use.  Furthermore they demonstrate either a total disdain for lake interests or an unimaginable degree of poor thinking by equating the fact that some fishermen find it hard to fish low spots in the river at low release rates with recreation infrastructure losses on the lakes during major droughts.

·         A lot has been learned in past droughts that is not being applied to managing the system.  For example 3600cfs release rates were experienced for over 12 consecutive months in the drought of 2008.  No serious problems were encountered downstream.  The Corps even acknowledges this fact in their worst case scenarios for drought protection stating that 3600cfs gives no serious impact to the environment.  In spite of this the Corps waits until our lakes are destroyed from a recreation stand point before they initiate 3600cfs releases.  And even now when the lakes are still down they refuse to hold 3600 cfs to let the lakes refill. 

·         Nature, in spite of its ravages from time to time, does a good job of providing for all the little critters that live in or near our rivers and lakes.  Nowhere on Earth does nature provide a constant flow rate for rivers.  It is pure idiocy from an engineering stand point to try to keep a major river like the Savannah at rates desired by man instead of those dictated by nature.  The dams smooth out the ravages of flooding and drought but to try to generate an artificial river of the size of the Savannah that never goes below  4,000cfs makes no sense.

·         The basic engineering principle the Corps is using is badly flawed.  The Corps insists on releasing more water from the lakes than nature provides.  As anyone who has ever kept up with a bank account for any period of time knows, such a practice will bankrupt the system.  We cannot make water out of thin air.  Consequently you have to match the water nature provides or you destroy the lakes.  Yet the Corps insists on following an antiquated drought plan that fully ignores the amount of water coming into the system.

 

There is probably more that could be said but these examples should make the point.

 

An Engineer uses existing scientific information to come up with a workable system.  A scientist on the other hand is always looking into further detail trying to eliminate any unknowns about a system.  If designing the first plane had been left up to scientists we would still not have air travel because there are so many questions that can only be answered by flying.  While further study by scientists will help understand the Savannah River System better, it is to no avail if we don’t use the knowledge gained to engineer the best system possible as we go.  We already know how to keep the lakes within 10’ of full pool (recreation can survive up to a 10’ drop) and we already know such measures will not do damage downstream.  So it is time to stop waiting for more study and apply what is already known.  Current Corps practices are causing hundreds of millions of dollars of destruction to our recreation infrastructure by failing to follow good engineering principles.  It’s time for that to stop.