U.S. CONGRESSMAN PAUL C. BROUN, M.D. 10th Congressional District of Georgia

It would be pertinent to also talk with the Corp regarding Lake Hartwell and Lake Lanier about how they are releasing too much water from these lakes. Why should we have to suffer for some mussels in Florida? I find that sometimes with the government that common sense takes a back seat.

We need action now!!! We've been dealing with the mismangement of these projects during drought since 2002. We need a drought plan that works, we need the mandates for the projects updated to take into cnosideration the HUGE economic impact the lakes have on the local economies. We need to set up a drought plan that truly CONSERVES at the reservoirs during drought, not try to artificially maintain outflows when inflows are 10% of normal! If we go to true minimums as soon as we come off full pool by 2 ft, we will not be hurting anyone, and we could be saving the basin if we enter into another protracted drought! We wasted water during the last drought - just like thirsty man on the desert, we drank when we should have conserved. Let's learn from our mistakes and not send down an overabundance of what we don't down into the Atlantic, so that when things get dire, all stakeholders within the basin can survive without catastrophic consequences to any one group. My 10 year old could figure this out!