Blasts corps in letter to general

Jeff Brown, chairman of the West Point Lake Advisory Committee, sent an angry letter to Brig. Gen. Joseph Schroedel this morning regarding the corps’ decision to drop West Point Lake to 628 feet in the winter months.

“It’s totally absurd,” Brown said. Schroedel spoke to the West Point Lake Coalition’s annual meeting Nov. 18 and outlined the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers process for lowering the lake according to the “rule curve” to 628 feet in winter. Local leaders, including the coalition, had asked for a variance allowing the lake to stay at 630 feet since rains had kept the lake full during the summer and the stored water could be used if the drought continues next summer.

Corps officials said at the Nov. 18 meeting their primary reason for dropping the lake is for flood control; they pointed to some $61 million in damages prevented in the flood of May 2003 because of their efforts.

Schroedel had been one of the most responsive corps leaders to date to hear out West Point’s concerns, Brown said the letter was inspired more by disappointment than anything else. Lake levels are supposed to drop to 628.9 by Dec. 19

“I’ve talked to a number of people since the Nov. 18 meeting that said ‘here we go again,’ ” he said, calling the decision to drop the lake “dramatic and unnecessary.”

“When we work with someone like we have with Schroedel and we feel like we’ve made progress, we’re just devastated and mad,” Brown said.

Brown also sent the letter this morning to other lake leaders, including West Point Lake Coalition Director Dick Timmerberg, LaGrange Mayor Jeff Lukken and the area’s congressional delegation, as well as corps officials in the district office in Mobile, Ala.

Here is the text of the letter:

Dear Brigadier General Schroedel:

The decision that you made or at least approved to lower West Point Lake from a full pool of 635 to 628 over a short few weeks has resulted in me being more disappointed in you than with any other officer within the Corps with whom I have had dealings regarding West Point Lake since I’ve been actively involved starting in the early 1990s, first as a LaGrange councilmen, then as state representative and now as leader of the advisory committee. I say this for the following reasons:

1-You have been the highest ranking officer with whom we have dealt so you have the authority to reverse the totally unsubstantiated historical lowering of West Point Lake to 628 in the winter. Until we started working with you we primarily worked with colonels who, except for Colonel Keyser, followed the management manual with no recognition it was unscientific and without regard to new information such as a drought. The lowering of the lake in late 2006, once again to this arbitrary winter pool level of 628, in the middle of a drought is classic!

2-We have had what I thought were very productive meetings with you where you evidenced an understanding of how unfair and unnecessary our “Rule Curve” of 7 feet (difference between winter pool and full pool) was and that the other three Corps lakes on the Chattahoochee either had no variation or a maximum of 2 feet.

3-We really felt good about the lake levels during much of 2008 and gave you a lot of credit. Turns out the credit should have gone to God who provided the rains.

4-You have had more information presented to you than any other person with whom we have dealt therefore giving you more justification for a variation.

5-The Chattahoochee basin remains in a drought and the long range forecast is a continuation. How can you possibly waste water now that, if the forecasts are correct, will comeback to haunt you as they did those who did the 2006 lowering referenced in #1?

6-Your actions totally ignore a $555,000,000 economic impact difference maintaining the levels we advocate of 633 in the winter versus the 628 you are doing. Even going to 630, as Colonel Keyser had the courage and wisdom to do, is a $265,000,000 difference. Apparently you do not understand and/or care that this area needs this help particularly in these very difficult times.

7-We were rebuilding public enthusiasm/confidence for West Point Lake which had seriously eroded due to lake conditions in 2006 and much of 2007. This enthusiasm/confidence was resulting in increased tourism, building/developing, fishing tournaments and use of the lake by locals including minorities (see #8). Your actions have thrown a bucket of frigid water on this.

8-You ignored what we believe to be violations of the Environmental Justice Act by lowering to 628 because it is injurious to a part of our minority population.

9-In my opinion your actions are contrary to the substantiated wishes of Senators Isakson and Chambliss, Congressman Westmoreland, Mayor Lukken and Commission Chairman Wolfe.

10-Your actions negate most of the congressionally authorized purposes for impounding West Point Lake.

11-When you rejected our request for higher lake levels to help with water quality issues due to reduced flows from Atlanta I thought it strange but as it turns out it was a fore-taste of your draining of our lake regardless of water quality or for that matter any other reason than mythological spring rains.

12-When someone gives you confidence that they are listening and wants to work with you it is shocking and depressing when they do exactly the opposite as I believe you have done with this decision.

13-Apparently you hang much of your decision on what one of your staff reported at the West Point Lake Coalition annual meeting recently and you referenced about 42 of 49 instances of high rainfall occurring in the December to April period which coincides with when the Corps lowers the lake to 628. I have lived here since the impoundment of West Point Lake so please tell me when we have had even one such rainfall in this period that realistically had any potential for creating flood conditions downstream.

I can only conclude that your actions are vindictive, to show who the boss is and/or you like the other Corps officers with whom we have dealt refuse, with the notable exception of Colonel Keyser, to use science and common sense to take an action that is “not by the book.”

If I am incorrect about any of this let’s have a public dialogue which I am starting as you can see from the distribution list. We at least deserve this. Meanwhile I beseech you to suspend this disastrous out flow of water which is not needed anywhere south of here.