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Name:
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Wakeboarder
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Subject:
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Discussion b/t LMLPA, APCO, and FERC re: Levels
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Date:
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5/8/2012 4:53:43 PM
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From Eric:
Logan Martin Forum Members, I thought you’d be interested in this information. This is an email I got from Mike Riley, President of LMLPA, about his conversations with Alabama Power.
Email From Mike:
The following is the email that started my dialog with APCO. I spent most of Friday afternoon swapping e-mails with corporate and talking with Alyson Fuqua about our concerns. I was told that Mr. Peeple had assembled his Engineers that afternoon determining if they can temporarily help us out for LakeFest. In addition, both Mr Peeple and Ms Fuqua have agreed to be the speaker at the LMLPA July 19th General Meeting.
< begin email to Mr. Peeple>
Mr Peeple,
I met you last year when you spoke at the Coosa River Basin State of our Watershed Conference and really enjoyed your presentation. I know you have met with several of our officers and board members along with the corps of engineers discussing raising the winter pool level two feet. As you are probably aware LMLPA has been a staunch supporter of the relicensing and even submitted documentation in APCO support and will continue to do so. We have a healthy relationship with APCO therefore we would like to extend to you an invitation to speak to our general meeting July 19th at the Pell City Civic Center around 6:30 and if you come a little early I'll treat you to a great bar-b-q meal at Fatman's. I know our members will be keenly interested in what you have to say and I'll keep the questions to a minimum (just ask Mike Godfrey he spoke last year).
That was the sugar now the vinegar. I have one other topic to ask you about. The Logan Martin water level is considerably low even by drought standards and we LMLPA (www.lmlpa.org) have been inundated with request that we intercede. LMLPA understands that this is a control lake however we seem to be sacrificed a little too much this time. We are about to have a very large water festival May 11th and 12th (www.loganmartinlakefest.com) and sure would be great if you could use your considerable influence to raise the water at least a foot to accommodate the boat dealers and other businesses who are banking on a good showing. The following is a chart from today's lake level and if it could just get to the overall average I think a lot of people would be extremely satisfied.
Coosa River
Plant Current Summer % of Full Winter If Avg Increase
Weiss 561.76 564 99.60% 558 562.2765 0.52
Henry 507.03 508 99.81% 507 506.4476 (0.58)
Logan 462.24 465 99.41% 460 463.579 1.34
Lay 395.63 396 99.91% 396 394.7899 (0.84)
Mitchell311.57 312 99.86% 312 311.0466 (0.52)
Jordan 251.13 252 99.65% 252 251.2299 0.10
Bouldin 251.04 252 99.62% 252 251.2299 0.19
Average 99.69%
I know that is asking a lot of you however a considerable amount of businesses depend on the Logan Martin to be a respectable level for them to do business. When Logan Martin was built the area was nothing more than rural agricultural farmland. I know that because I had a cousin who had farm one day and woke up the next with a marina. I think due to the rapid growth of this area a reevaluation of this lake needs to be made and made pretty rapid.
Please consider our invitation to attend also if you have any questions or comments please let me know via email or call me at 205-531-2372.
Thank You,
Mike Riley
Additional comments from Mike:
Since then I have talked with Mr Peeple actually in great length late into Monday night. Given me being the new guy in my current capacity and not quite understanding the dynamics of our current situation I actually was enticed by the conspiracy that APCO was deliberately draining our lake. This episode has really shown my ignorance in the operation of the hydroelectric system along the Coosa River Basin and many government agencies that have a bearing on that operation. I am going to attempt to address the many allegations that have been leveled at Alabama Power. I think it might be appropriate since today is the target date for full pool and that didn't happen. He told me that he is still trying to see if they can temporarily raise the water for LakeFest but cannot make any guarantees.
We were told that the water was deliberately kept low because of expected rains. This one is actually a misunderstanding for relaying information I thought was reliable from a unauthorized source within Alabama Power earlier in the year (I will not divulge who told me that). In actuality information being disseminated was that we were having dryer than normal conditions. An e-mail I received on March 21st stated: "All three river systems are in normal operations. Rains continue to be forecast, with up to 1½” in the near term 5 day forecast; the short term 6-14 day forecast calls for probabilities of drier than normal precipitation. The longer term (30-90 day) forecasts continue to show a higher probability of average to drier than average precipitation. The onset of spring means that our reservoirs will experience less runoff from rain events as the grasses and trees wake up and compete for available water". What this amounted to was that since we experienced a warmer winter and a real early spring vegetation was sucking up the water earlier than normal. Secondly, April was dry and I mean real dry we had around 1 inch of rain along the system in which I verified with the Weather Channel of only 1.27 inch of rain in Cropwell compared to a normal rainfall 4.53 inches. The good news is that we have had 1.72 inches of rainfall already in May and the average is 4.71 inches. Mr Peeple said that NOAA or The National Weather Service has relayed to them that weather conditions have returned to normal. A good tropical depression would help right now.
In conjunction with this is that APCO has to increase its release of water from 2,000 cfs to 5,000 cfs starting April first to support Aquatic Life during migration. This was a rule imposed by FERC at the direction of U.S. Fish and Wildlife for a snail around Lake Jordan and would normally end on May 31st. This coincides with the raising of water on Logan Martin starting on April 1st. The only problem with this is that there is only 4,400 cfs coming into Logan Martin. Alabama Power has requested to reduce the flow with FERC (see attached) however in typical government fashion there is a public comment time-frame that will end on May 11th and if anybody objects (like the Serra Club) it starts all over again. I will submit for LMLPA our support of the reduced water release electronically today. However whenever that reduction has taken place there is a ramp-down period therefore not instantaneous.
The comment other lakes along the Coosa are close to full pool is not totally accurate and we are being sacrificed. I think I'm the one who said that we are being sacrificed. In actuality, all of the lakes are below the rule curve and Weiss Lake is way below its historical level. As some of you know Henry Neely was granted a variance to its rule curve to one foot by the Corps or Engineers. The variance has been in place since 1999. The variance for Logan Martin was fully supported by Alabama Power in which several members of LMLPA met with the Corps however they wanted to have certain stipulations met before the variance was granted. Alabama Power is in the process of meeting those stipulations but has slowed down the relicensing of the dam. I asked about dropping the level of the other lakes (especially Lakes Jordan and Bouldin) and he said that those lakes are quite minuscule in comparison to Logan Martin and would not have any effect on us plus there is the mandatory release comes in to effect.
I asked of any adverse effects that have taken place and he said the dams are not producing electricity as required due to the drought he told me that hydroelectric system can be 17% of the network however they normally do not exceed 6 % and current are running much less probably less than 3%. I would assume they would rather have the hydroelectric plants producing since that's the lowest cost.
I also asked about the new St Clair Water System if it is having an effect on Logan Martin and he said no. I still have concerns about the cross boundary transfer of from the Coosa Basin to the Cahaba Basin, but that's another issue.
The recreational release on the Jordan has a major effect on Logan Martin. This is another FERC requirement that at certain times in the year there are releases for the kayak and canoes. I don't know where that comes from but it is one of the stupidest rules I've heard about and it is part of the licensing. The good news is that there will not be any releases this year because according to the FERC requirement if the water level is below one foot of rule curve on Logan Martin there will be no release. Alabama Power is in the process of notifying the Mayor of Wetumpka that the release will not take place this year.
I haven't even addressed evaporation that has taken place due to the warmer temperature. I think one of Alabama Power's biggest flaws is not telling people in a normal tone and not in legalese of what is going on. I insisted that he goes to his public affairs person and put out what I have described above out to the public so people will understand why the water level is what it is. I also told him that we needed consistent communications with APCO and I think that will take place since I have his telephone number and e-mail address (I think he is going to be sick of me). Mainly I told him I want us to continue having a good working relationship and that we will support them in maintaining our lake in a good healthy manner.
I know this is not what our members do not want to hear and I don't blame them however there are many factors taking place and to put the blame on Alabama Power is not deserved. I apologize to the older members (I mean the ones who have been in LMLPA for quite some time) for not requesting advise. I'm sure that those members will probably validate what I have reported.
We need rain and a lot of it to bring our water level up. Please let me know if you have questions or comments.
Thanks,
Mike Riley
URL: LMLPA Web Site
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|  Discussion b/t LMLPA, APCO, and FERC re: Levels - Wakeboarder - 5/8/2012 4:53:43 PM |  Discussion b/t LMLPA, APCO, and FERC re: Levels - Wakeboarder - 5/8/2012 4:55:44 PM | | Discussion b/t LMLPA, APCO, and FERC re: Levels - twc - 5/8/2012 8:21:58 PM | | Discussion b/t LMLPA, APCO, and FERC re: Levels - MovinFr8 - 5/8/2012 9:11:07 PM | | Discussion b/t LMLPA, APCO, and FERC re: Levels - LMLPA - 5/9/2012 8:25:01 AM | | Discussion b/t LMLPA, APCO, and FERC re: Levels - midagefeller - 5/10/2012 8:09:44 AM | | Who is this Midagefeller imposter? - BamaKat - 5/10/2012 10:45:08 AM | | Who is this Midagefeller imposter? - midagefeller - 5/10/2012 2:19:39 PM |
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