TVA seeks public input on land management planning process

The TVA probably had 30+ on staff at their open house held at the Blairsville Campus of North Georgia Technical College. At any given time there were more TVA reps than guests; we were there from about 5-7pm. They were all super-friendly and very well-prepared. They were divided into different responsibilities by table (NEPA, Wetlands, Watershed, etc.). Funny that watershed was the only table that didn’t have a sign; he probably hid it because he was the hit of the party! Nonetheless, you could find him by the spread of graphs with downward sloping red lines, to which they were basically saying it’s tough all over the system, which it is: so far, this is the lowest rainfall in the Tennessee Valley in 118 years.

I did mention to several of them that in addition planning for “flood control” and “100-year floods”, perhaps now some focus should be shifted to include “drought control” and “100-year droughts”. Didn’t get much more than a blank stare on that one.

Other than that, they didn’t seem to want to delve much into the lake levels/recreation topic. Nothing new there. The focus of the meeting was to capture public opinion on what the TVA should do with their unused lake parcels throughout the entire watershed:

TVA is developing a Land Management Plan to guide land use and resource management decisions concerning TVA-managed public lands located along nine mountain reservoirs…The Plan will identify the most suitable and appropriate use for each parcel of TVA-managed public land along these reservoirs for the next 10 years. The anticipated impacts of implementing the Plan will be described in an environmental impact statement (EIS).

They had large, plotter-printed, color maps (the online maps aren’t nearly as detailed & they wouldn’t let me take one home) spread on tables with the areas marked for the proposed land use. Once a few people congregated around a map, a rep would join in on the conversation. They seemed to be intently interested in all opinions (they even had a stenographer if you didn’t feel like writing or typing) and the jest of what I heard from the public was either leave it as-is, or do something low-impact like hiking trails.

Are the Ocoee rafters taking our water?
The paper jumped the gun on this one. According to the TVA watershed rep, the same amount of water is being sent downstream, but it’s just not diverted into the turbines to generate electricity. Instead, it flows freely and the rafters are paying the TVA for the lost hydropower revenue. Why can’t something like this be done for the lake?

When does construction start on the Blue Ridge Dam Rehabilitation Project and how long will it take?
Even though the paper is saying construction will start now in 2010 instead of 2009, the rep I spoke to admitted that that was a guess since it’s still in the design process. When asked if the work would be completed in time to fill for summer recreation the answer was, “we’re going to try”. After hearing him describe the process and knowing how things can go wrong, I would bet on “no lake” that summer. He had a pretty funny comment: he said he told one of his colleagues they should start the dam project now then we’d be sure to get more rain than we need. I said, “Might as well”.

Is the Ritz-Carlton coming to Lake Nottely?
Not sure. According to what I heard from the TVA and Lake Homeowners Association, an ‘Eagle Group’ has put down $1 million (non-refundable) on rights to 1600+- acres around Cooper’s Creek. This is where they would dredge (it’s ony about 4 feet deep at full pool) and put up a coffer dam so that the resort would have ‘year-round water’. Unfortunately, this would ruin the best fishing and the most diverse spawning area on the lake. However, the TVA rep said that they had not yet applied for the required permits and a few of the homeowner folks had heard they are having funding problems.

What’s the bottom line for us?
Actually, according to the watershed guy, there are two more balancing guides below the green one: these are crisis guides and they’re parallel straight across the page. He was a bit sketchy on the details, but I think the first one was drinking water and he didn’t divulge the drop-dead guide. When asked what his best guess was for the future slope of the line, he basically said that if we’re lucky, the red and blue lines will start to parallel one another. Barring a hurricane, that means trailered boats by more lakefront homeowners in a matter of days. As long as we’re averaging double the outflow vs. inflow (bottom of page), it’s pretty easy to read the writing on the wall.

The TVA is accepting public commentary until 30 June, and you can fill out the same questionnaire that was at the meeting on their website. Tell them what you think: http://www.tva.gov/environment/reports/mtnres/