Some people are begging for 3600cfs, the corps claims
3800cfs is as low as they can go, and the actual release rates are currently
4,000cfs. Why all the fuss and what
difference does it make.
First, looking at what these do to lake level, every
100cfs is 1ft of lake level over a year’s time.
So 3600cfs instead of 4,000 cfs will give us 4ft more water in our lakes
a year from now. This means if you are
providing recreational services at the lake or if you have a house sitting on
the side of the lake you definitely want as much water as possible which means
your vote would be for 3600cfs. That is
if you had a vote. But you do not. The Corps refuses representation from lake interests
when they decide release rates.
Second looking at what nature provides in rain, 3600cfs
matches the input from rain over a year’s time in the previous droughts of
record. Hence using 3600 while a drought
is in progress prevents sending more water downstream than you are getting from
rain. That means if you are looking at
the release rates from the stand point of simply balancing out what nature
provides you would vote for 3600cfs. But
here again you do not get a vote because that is not part of the considerations
when the Corps decides release rates.
Third, looking at past history 3600cfs was demonstrated to
do no harm in the drought of 2008 when the lakes were operated for over 12
consecutive months at 3600cfs. The Corps
even did a survey of all stakeholders in 2009 asking if anyone expected to have
a problem if they went still lower in releases to 3100cfs. We had to do a Freedom of Information Act
request to get the results but we found that in the hundreds of responses from
businesses and townships downstream of the lakes no one had a problem at 3600
and they even anticipated 3100 would be OK.
The only negative response was from an environmental group that
speculated there might be a problem at 3100.
So if all these stakeholders were given a vote on release rates they
would be fine at 3600cfs. But again they
don’t get a vote.
So who makes these decisions and on what basis. The corps meets with environmentalists to the
exclusion of everyone else and they discuss what would be best. From the environmentalists’ stand point the
more water in the river the better. This
is true even if that causes the lakes to be totally destroyed. This is counter to what Mother Nature does
with all natural rivers but never mind that because apparently man is wiser
than nature. Where else do you find an
artificial river that never drops below 3800 or 4000cfs in flow? Never mind
that this is poor management in that you are spending more water than you have and
therefore destroy the lakes. It’s like our
government spending more money than they have. Both the environmentalists and
the government argue that they have such good causes. Good cause or no, when the water or the money
is gone you are finished. Why then does
the Corps follow these ridiculous rules?
It is because these are the only people who get to vote on release rates.
I thought you might want to know who keeps destroying our
lakes and why. And by the way, the
studies you’ve heard about that are supposed to help get a better drought
plan. Guess who will be deciding what
the results of these studies mean. You
guessed it. It will be the same ones who
think they are wiser than us and keep destroying our lakes. And for anyone who still thinks 4000 cfs is
best, what is good about destroying fresh water by pouring it into
saltwater. That is exactly what you are
doing anytime you put more water through the dam than is coming into the lake
from rain.
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