ANDERSON — The Lake Hartwell Association recently announced they have joined a group dedicated to advocating for higher water levels in lakes Hartwell, Russell and Thurmond.
The Save Our Lake Now group has been in existence for two months to help businesses, residents, municipalities and organizations with vested interest in those three lakes.
The group is advocating for a reduction in Thurmond outflow from 3,600 cubic feet per second (cfs) to 3,100cfs, which they think will increase the water levels in all three lakes by about three feet each year.
Save Our Lake Now officials are asking residents to visit www.saveourlakesnow.org to add their names to a petition advocating for that change and for it to continue until all three lakes are full.
Mike Massey, the chairman of the South Carolina Legislative Committee of the Lake Hartwell Association, said Sunday that U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials said last month that the Thurmond outflow reduction would result in increased water levels for the lakes. However, potential issues with sturgeon spawning and spider lilies have hindered the Corps’ ability to make the change, he said.
“There is a number of issues that at any one time could result in an requirement to increase flows,” Massey said.
Corps officials have said recently that the spawning success for the short-nosed sturgeon, an endangered species that certain water levels, is unknown .
He said that Save Our Lake Now group would take the signatures from the petition and present them to federal and state elected officials. Many state elected officials do not understand the severity of the problem at the three lakes, Massey said.
The water lever at Lake Hartwell was 647.32 feet Saturday morning, which is 12.68 feet below full pool. Heavy rain and snow in the area contributed to a recent increase in the lake level.
Massey said he appreciated the temporary stoppage of discharges out of Hartwell Lake but acknowledges it will only continue until those water levels are balanced between Hartwell and Thurmond.
Jane W. Davis, the owner of Big Water Marina in Starr, said that she supports the reduction in outflow from Thurmond. She said that the recent snow and temporary stoppage of Lake Hartwell discharges have created reason for optimism but more needs to be done.
“I would like to see us maintaining 3,100 cubic feet per second for an extended period of time to make sure it doesn’t negatively impact the downstream and there is a chance to recover to a normal level,” Davis said. “We haven’t had a chance to see if it will work.”
Davis said that the past four or five months have been devastating to her business. She said many of her customers have left the lake entirely because they didn’t have any hope for change or faith in the Corps to turn the situation around.
She said that the amount of rain that the area receives in March would be the key to how the entire summer will shape up. Big Water Marina is hanging on just to stay in business and action needs to be taken to improve the situation, Davis said.
“The drought plan isn’t working,” she said. “The triggers are not working.”
Independent-Mail freelance writer Vince Jackson contributed to this article.
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