Grand Lakers Join the FERC Fight in Washington, D.C.

As I mentioned in last week’s column, a group of Grand Lakers, made up of Joe Harwood, Mike Williams, Casey Davis and yours truly, traveled to our nation’s capital on Monday for a meeting to petition our elected representatives for some form of relief from the intrusive Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The process to establish a Shoreline Management Plan for Grand Lake was mandated by this federal bureaucracy, empowered by the Federal Power Act to oversee and supervise any lake generating hydropower, in 2005. What originally was described by the FERC to be a management plan, has turned out to be anything but that which would reflect what the people wanted. In short,  if the FERC’s approach of one plan fits all approach is implemented, the goose that laid this golden egg in northeastern Oklahoma, known as Grand Lake, is in for some turbulent times and rough waters.

If recent events at our sister lake in Missouri, Lake of the Ozarks, is any indication, the SMP  ordered by the FERC for our lake will bear little resemblance to the one developed by stakeholders and the Grand River Dam Authority, which was submitted over three years ago. An apathetic Lake of the Ozarks considered their plan a done-deal, but when the FERC dropped the bomb-shell of a FERC ordered SMP, it caught most of the lake’s officials and leaders by surprise. It was anything but development or user friendly and even included a mandate to remove over 4,000 structures deemed to be with the Ameren Electric project boundary. Over 1,200 of these structures were homes, some of which had been in Missouri families and others since the lake was built nearly seventy years ago. Many have described what’s happening at Lake of the Ozarks as a preview of coming attractions for Grand Lake.

But bureaucrats can only cram so much %*@= down an American’s throat before they rise to the occasion. The FERC, which many believed previously to be untouchable, is now faced with a nationwide developing grass roots movement calling for legislation to get this intrusive bureaucracy in check. Smith Mountain Lake, located in Virginia is leading the way to introduce some common sense to the FERC approach to lake management. Smith Mountain Lake residents and business operators are convinced they know more about what’s best for their lake and environment than some dude in the FERC’s Atlanta office. Their organization, Curb Unnecessary Regulatory Burden, Inc. and associated web site, curb-ferc-aep.com, is leading the way in organizing a union of lakes to take on the establishment.

Arrangement for the meeting in our nation’s capital wouldn’t have happened without the help of Virginia Congressman Robert Hurt. Hurt attended the meeting and addressed the group and was supportive of legislation filed by Missouri representatives, in both the House and Senate, to bring this massive federal agency under control. Also attending and speaking to the possibilities was Hurt’s fellow congressman Morgan Griffith, who echoed Hurt’s sentiments. It’s not too surprising these congressmen were wired in since some 50-plus residents of Virginia were in attendance, but the real star of the meeting, in my opinion, was Missouri Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler. Hartzler’s district is in the Lake of the Ozark’s area and we can only imagine the calls she fielded recently from the residents of her district. Interestingly enough though, no one was in attendance from Missouri. One thing’s for sure; this freshman representative wasn’t shy about going to bat for her constituents as she has filed a bill, Hartzler's HR 3244, addressing the FERC issue and lake user property rights. This coupled with a bill in the senate, S-1758, sponsored by Missouri Senators McCaskill and Blunt, gives us hope in this battle over control of Grand Lake.

There’s no way to over emphasize the role Lake of the Ozarks will play in the final outcome in this battle for control of locally owned and managed lakes. They’re more developed than almost any of the lakes we’ve run across, and much like the political clout used on Lake Texoma to have it managed in a user friendly way, different than most other Corps of Engineers supervised lakes, the muscle is there to effect the final outcome with the FERC. But our help won’t hurt….I would encourage team Grand Lake to contact their congressmen and senators and ask for their support of the Missouri legislative initiative for relief.

Joe Harwood, who also traveled to Washington for the meeting, wanted to share these thoughts on the meeting and the current legislative opportunities to reel in the FERC are as follows:

“My viewpoint is that a significant window of opportunity has been opened by a small lake in Virginia, Smith Mountain Lake, and the mammoth tourist and economic giant Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. These two bodies of water are at opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to physical and economic size….and Grand Lake is somewhere in between.

What all three lakes share in common is many decades of successful operation by local control which we are suddenly seeing displaced by a non-elected federal agency. The SMP directive from the FERC is effectively going to take away all local control of all three lakes.

Smith Mountain Lake is very well organized and passionate; Lake of the Ozarks is politically and economically very strong and crosses many state boundaries with considerable influence. Grand lake must align itself with the passion of Smith Mountain Lake and the power found at Lake of the Ozarks. We, as a lake, must realized the battle is right now to keep us from being overtaken by an uncaring and un-knowledgable federal agency which will take control of our lakes away and tell us what is best after all these decades of successful operation.

The idea that someone in a cubicle in Washington could direct Lake of the Ozarks to remove, not one or two, but thousands of homes and structures is indeed scary. We all need to realize that without alignment and support for the political initiative in Missouri, from Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler and Senators Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt, Grand Lake could be facing the same issues and potential loss of control. The battle is now and we all need to join together for the sake of our future.

We have not proven successful against the FERC on our own and we need to look no further than the current lake level issue for proof of that fact. Everyone and anyone know lowering the lake prior to the Labor Day weekend is a proven folly, but we haven’t been able to get it changed for the betterment of the lake.

The movement out of Missouri and Virginia is our window of opportunity to regain control of what is an Oklahoma state owned asset. This is a non-partisan issue and has nothing do with political party affiliation. It’s a lake user’s issue. So who will steer the course, lake users or non-lake users?

Missouri’s two senators have set aside partisanship for the good of their state by jointly sponsoring the legislation regarding the FERC. We need all Oklahomans to join together in encouraging our delegation to join the statesmen from Missouri in fixing this travesty of a bureaucracy. We don’t need their Lip SERVICE we need real hands on support.

This issue is about YOU and YOUR rights…not just those of commercial operators. The proposed Smith Mountain Lake final plan from the FERC limits personal docks to no more than 1,000 square feet and not more than two slips. And that includes the footage within the slip. And get this one for the ages! If cleats have been installed for the convenience of visiting craft that counts as a slip. Is this really America we’re talking about?

We owe a big thanks to Rusty Fleming, and Grand Lakers United Enterprise, for organizing and making this trip to our nation’s capital happen. Without his research and ears tuned into the internet, we wouldn’t have had a clue about this Washington meeting and this growing coalition of organized resistance against the FERC. “Ol (old) Rusty is still looking out for his beloved pond.

When discussing with me the time and expense associated with a trip like this, Rusty sighed and said, ‘Sometimes you have to quit waving the flag and shoulder a musket.’ Keep your powder dry as there will be more to come.”

Well said Joe and we will keep you posted. Call those politicians and get ‘em plugged in to an important local issue and be sure and sign the petition to the White House at www.curb-ferc-aep.com.

See Ya Around the Pond!!