Property owners downstream wonder when will the Lake Murray drawdowns stop

The Lake Murray drawdown is lauded by many as being a great accomplishment in that the nuisance weed, hydrilla, which negatively impacts homeowners, fishermen and water skiers, can be controlled. The decision was made to draw the lake down for several months to accomplish the work during the wettest time of the year.

Where does all this water go when it’s released from the dam? Of course, it all flows downstream and impacts the property owners downstream of the Lake Murray Reservoir. My father and I own 1,000 acres along the Congaree River below Columbia, most of which is in a conservation easement. We put our land in an easement to protect it from unnatural disturbance(s) so it could continue to flourish in a natural state.

In October of 2018, we noticed the water rising intermittently. November and December came and went with all the rainfall, on top of the Lake Murray releases, and that has transformed our land into a solid sheet of water. In fact, there are many protected properties located below the dam which has been a solid sheet of water since Nove. 13, including Congaree National Park. When is this unnatural release of water going to stop?

Ratepayers won’t forget the good ole boys

It never ceases to amaze me how much this state is controlled by the good old boy network.

Mr Lucas of our House says that the Dominion offer is good enough, and no one, not our newly elected governor nor the Public Service Commission, continued to object to the terms of the SCANA merger that left the ratepayers holding the bag for the SCANA leadership’s extremely poor decisions for billions of dollars.

I guess our governor is either expecting those of us that voted for him to forget that he caved on this or he only wants four more years of the job. Bush Sr. learned this lesson the hard way, and I suspect our governor will as well. Read my lips “We won’t forget who sold us out.”

And then you take money from Dominion for your gala, really!

Action by citizens needs to be taken against climate change

I recent headline in climate news read, “In 2018, U.S. carbon emissions rose by 3% over previous years.” This concerns me because we should be decreasing our emissions if we have any hope to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. I will bypass the false dichotomy that there is a debate behind the existence of human-caused climate change. The science is clear, climate change is real.

This letter is not addressed to deniers, I don’t know what amount of evidence can convince them. This letter is to those who have families or care about what condition we will leave the planet in for the next generation. Action on climate change is not easy, but necessary. It requires us to step outside our comfort zone and take actions reducing consumption of carbon intensive industries. For example, we could drive less, like carpooling or taking the bus or walking. Or choosing more locally produced goods that traveled less distance to market. Or stop buying cheap goods that last a year, be thrown away and easily replaced. Or voting for politicians that understand the science behind climate change and are committed to enacting policies to correct the structural problems contributing to climate change.

This story was originally published January 19, 2019 at 4:54 PM.