On the back page of the Nov. 4 edition, tucked down in the bottom left corner, I read with a mixture of negative emotions the article “Lake returning to normal levels.” What really got me is that the Army Corps of Engineers is lowering our lake level to the winter pool level of 628 feet above mean sea level.

As one of the more involved people regarding water issues here and elsewhere in the state over the past 20 years, let me bluntly say that is stupid, lacks any scientific justification and flies in the face of common sense backed by an economic impact study we did at the cost of about $120,000 which many of you funded with your generous contributions in 2007.

That study showed that instead of this “normal level” of 628 ft in the winter and the full pool level of 635 if we went to 633ft in the winter and 635 the rest of the time the economic impact would be $556,000,000 MORE each year in the area surrounding West Point Lake versus how the Corps has historically managed the lake! Wouldn’t that greatly help our recession riddled local economy?

In addition to the economic impact at 628 the lake is nowhere near the spectacular beauty it is at 635, is far more dangerous to boaters, a majority of those with docks can’t use them, soil erosion increases, the fishing habitat is negatively effected, etc. However as the old expression goes, “don’t confuse me with facts.” Believe me I have seen this in spades when working with the federal government.

We did another study at about the same time for about the same cost and again paid for by your contributions that proved that there would be no increased chance of flooding by going to 633 in the winter. Additionally, for years we have been the leader in the state in terms of involvement, working with our Congressman and Senators, giving testimony and doing other studies looking at the entire Chattahoochee basin. We know what we are talking about.

Despite all of the above - the late Dr Art Holbrook, Joe Maltese, Dick Timmerberg, our locally elected officials, Congressman Westmoreland, etc. - we are back to 1975. For the sake of my sanity it was probably best that due to being selected for Chuck Colson’s Centurion Program last December that I had to give up being Chairman of the West Point Lake Advisory Council.

I have lived here since the impoundment of the lake in 1975. During that time I can only remember one person in the Corps’ chain of command who had the intelligence and courage to raise the winter pool level and then only to 630 versus our recommendation of 633. If you want to see my disappointment, probably an understatement, in one person I thought we had convinced go to my semi defunct political website www.repjbrown.org. There you can read my November 2008 letter to then Brigadier General Joseph Schroedel.

My comments about federal government employees above and below are reserved for those with higher level decision making responsibilities. The majority of others seem like the bell shape curve distribution of any large group.

And these are the type of people within the environment of a terrible decision- making process that you want controlling your healthcare? How about what they will soon be doing with “Cap and Trade” legislation that will raise your energy cost about 30% for a totally untested solution with no thought of the unintended consequences to a “problem” that has yet to be conclusively proven scientifically?