GLUE Member Report for September 12, 2011
With the Labor Day holiday and the
following short week I’ve been remiss about getting a report out on our meeting
with Senator Inhofe’s Field Representative, Michael Lee. We met on September 1st
and others attending were Joe Harwood, Terry Jones, State Rep. Doug Cox’s
field Rep, Jaime Dobbins, President of the Grand Lake Area Chamber of Commerce
and Carl Metcalf, President of the board for the Grand Lake Water Alliance
Foundation.
Mr. Lee had a good understanding about
the lake level issue and told the group the Senator gets letters annually
pertaining to this issue. Most of his questions centered on the relicensing in
92’ and the language pertaining to lake level. He was a little surprised to
find out the original language called for a five-year trial study of the millet
seeding program to be reviewed at the end of the study for effectiveness. We
made a strong case to Lee about the fact this issue was never related to
flooding and this latest rejection by FERC was tied to a few letters from
upstream interest, most from Miami, Oklahoma. This was never about flooding and
can’t be allowed to become one now.
I explained to the Senators field rep the
flood flowage study, requested by the FERC and ultimately used to reject this
latest rule curve amendment. I also made him aware of existing studies, the
most credible performed by Dr. Forrest Holly from the University of Iowa in
conjunction with past flood litigation, which addressed the flowage questions.
Joe Harwood was a little more direct
about his dissatisfaction over the fact this issue wasn’t already resolved. He
pointed out to Lee that Senator Inhofe and about every other politician
representing the Grand Lake area had all agreed they were not in favor of
lowering the lake level prior to Labor Day weekend, but here we are doing the
same stupid thing all over again.
I sent an e-mail to Mr. Lee this a. m.
asking for an update. We’ll keep you posted.
A submission from the GRDA to the FERC
dated September 9. 2011 was posted on the FERC website this am. It is a
hard-to-understand update letter regarding the filed for amendments of articles
401, 406 and 411 of the license for the Pensacola Project. A review of the
minutes of the most recent Technological Committee Meeting will give you a
flavor of the veiled discord between those involved.
I’m attaching the document for your
review and I’m also sending it on to Inhofe’s staff. We’ll keep you informed of
our progress.