Sunday, July 21, 2013

YOUR VOTE IN UPCOMING ELECTIONS CAN IMPACT LAKE LEVELS


I met with Gary Gerrard who is running for Congress in Georgia’s 10th district for about an hour on Thursday.  He is very interested in what he can do to help with our lake situation if elected.  He sees the recommendations being put forth by Save Our Lakes Now as sensible and wondered why the Corps is not doing anything with them.  We agreed that the basic problem for lake stakeholders is we have no meaningful representation at the Corps meetings where release rates, etc. are discussed.  We desperately need someone who has skin in the game from the stand point of recreation who will not be a yes man for the Corps.

 

We need to pass the word that our votes in upcoming congressional or senatorial races can make a big difference on how our lakes are managed.  The current representatives and Senators for some reason are staying at arm’s length from the battle.  The changes needed to correct our problems with lake levels are not complicated.  We already know how to eliminate the destruction to recreational infrastructure using what has been learned in recent droughts.  But our leaders sit quietly by while the Corps waits for further study to be done.  Even when the studies are complete we will not be any better off unless we can get representation in interpreting the study results.  We all know from problems with our government that the way something is interpreted depends on the mindset (eg. Democrat vs Republican) of the person doing the interpretation.  The same holds true with interpreting the results of lake studies.

 

I urge you to make sure the person you vote for in the upcoming elections is concerned about our lakes and willing to get into the fray over how our lakes are managed.  At the very least they need to insist that recreation ,the one Corps responsibility that is being ignored, be put into the equation of balancing the basin.  

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