Corps Releases Scoping Report for the ACF Water Control Manual Update
In October 2008, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducted five public scoping meetings in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia for preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) regarding implementation of an updated Water Control Manual for the ACF River Basin. More than 1,000 stakeholders participated in the public meetings, including several members of the 1071 Coalition, and nearly 2,300 comments were submitted during the formal scoping period which ended in November.
Comments received were organized into 12 categories, and according to the Corps, “Water Management Recommendations” was the number one issue area identified during the scoping process, with 868 related comments received. Water management as it is being carried out under the current, but outdated operations plan is of critical concern to the members of the 1071 Coalition, particularly since storage in Lake Lanier has been affectively abandoned in recent decades. Managed storage is essential to the health of the lake since it sits on such a small watershed, thereby having much less impact from rainfall than other reservoirs downstream.
The Corps has indicated that completing the EIS and Water Control Manual update will take approximately three years, with a Draft EIS anticipated to be available for public review in the spring of 2010. 1071 Coalition representatives will continue to monitor the process and work to impact the manual update so that deliberate water storage in Georgia’s largest reservoir is returned as a key component to the management plan.
To download the ACF Water Control Manual Update Scoping Report, click here. For more information on the update, please visit the Corps' project website.
Thank You to our Members
If you contributed to the 1071 Coalition and want to be included on our membership list, you don't have to do anything; we have listed you automatically, and we appreciate your support. If you gave the 1071 Coalition money but wish to remain anonymous, please let us know by clicking here to send an email, simply including your name in the body of the email. |
