U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials in Atlanta say they’ve received the letter blasting Brig. Gen. Joseph Schroedel for still planning to lower West Point Lake to 628 feet this winter, but they need time to “absorb it” before issuing a response.

“We’re certainly aware of West Point’s concerns,” said Robert G. Holland, spokes-man for the corps’ Atlantic division office in Atlanta.

The division office, headed by Schroedel, oversees in part the Mobile District office, which includes West Point Lake and the Apalachi-cola-Chattahoochee-Flint basin.

“We understand the impacts a lower lake level has at West Point,” Holland said. “We’ve had many meetings with the representatives from West Point and we understand their issues.”

Jeff Brown, chairman of the West Point Lake Advisory Committee, sent the letter to Schroedel on Monday morning, sending copies to other local lake advocates. Brown called the corps’ decision to follow the “rule curve” and lower the lake to the prescribed winter pool of 628 feet “inexcusable” when rains this year have bolstered flows to the south and water stored here now could be used if drought conditions persist next summer.

West Point Lake enjoyed a full pool of 635 feet for most of the summer and fall but is predicted to drop to 628 feet by mid-December.

“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,” Brown told Schroedel in the letter.

Local lake advocates have dealt with a revolving cast of colonels and corps leaders at the district office in Mobile for years.

When Schroedel arrived at the Atlantic division office more than two years ago, he was the first leader from that office to take an interest and hear out West Point Lake leaders on their concerns.

Brown said Monday his letter was inspired mainly by frustration; Brown had thought this area had made real progress with Schroe-del, who had said earlier this year he was willing to look at “adaptive management” and alternative ways of managing lake levels along the basin.

“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,” Brown’s letter said in part. “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.”

Other local officials, who were copied on the letter, say they understood where Brown is coming from with his remarks, but still hold out hope they can work with the corps.

“I certainly share the frustration (conveyed in the letter,” said LaGrange Mayor Jeff Lukken. “As a group, we need to work with the facts that are available to change their mind.”

In spite of the drought that has persisted for the last two years, corps officials say their primary reason for lowering the lake in winter is flood control. Schroedel and corps hydrologist James Hathorn said at the West Point Lake Coalition annual meeting Nov. 18 that, al-though downstream areas did flood in May 2003, including $1.6 million in corps property damage alone, more than $60 million in potential downstream damage was avoided.

Hathorn also gave the results of a “probability” study of the likelihood of flooding at different winter pool levels. The Southeast River Forecast Center has identified four levels of potential flooding downstream from the lake on the Chattahoochee River. A downstream river level of 14 feet is considered an “action stage,” 17 feet is a “flood zone,” 19 feet is “moderate flooding” and 21 feet is “major flooding.”

According to the study, the probability of reaching the flood zone rises from 11 percent to 13 percent if the winter pool is 630 rather than 628, with the likelihood of the event happening every eight years instead of every nine.

The probability of “major stage” flooding rises from 3 percent to 4 percent, with the likelihood of the event happening every 24 years instead of every 31 years.

Jennifer Shrader may be reached at jshrader@ lagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 236.