So Where Do We Go from Here?

As I’ve been known to say in the past, a lot of water has passed through the turbines since last week… but more than the week before since the dissolved oxygen testing has come to a close. By now, most Grand Lakers, who have an interest in the lake level issue, have either read or heard about the joint response from our two U.S. Senators with respect to a plea for help on this issue. I’ve been known to be blunt from time-to-time, so here goes.

Senators Coburn and Inhofe could have saved a lot of people some serious time and money by merely not responding at all. When you consider the time required to generate a press release, the space donated by both print and electronic media and associated costs involved, to tell Grand Lakers their state representative didn’t understand how things work and pointing out there was a whole bevy of lake stakeholders needing to be corralled by the Grand River Dam authority, a no response would have been a much better option. These are the same guys who are not bashful about taking on the President of the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Pentagon and any number of other federal agencies, but appear to be intimidated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. I fired off the following e-mail to Senators, U.S Congressman Dan Boren and copied State Representative Doug Cox after seeing their response as follows:

Are our senators really serious with this blame the GRDA response? The development of the shoreline management plan provided testimony regarding GRDA’s effectiveness in bringing a diversified group of Grand Lake stakeholders together. And the only thing worse than that has been the inaction by FERC for over a year with respect to the plan submitted.  

I provided GRDA a petition with over 4,000 signatures regarding the lake level issue over three years ago. FERC’s response was we don’t care how many signatures or petitions from lake users are collected, they won’t be considered without a uniform recommendation from the Technological Committee.

The members of that committee can’t stand one another, and it’s become obvious that stakeholders on Grand Lake don’t enjoy equal status. The wildlife interests trump anything and everything and we’re appealing to our two senators for help and all we get is lip service. Dr. Cox was right on the money with his response.

GRDA did appeal to FERC for a variance in this year’s rule curve because no millet seeding will be taking place. It was flatly refused. Is there no logic left out there anywhere? I’ll be authoring an editorial opinion addressing their inadequate response and this issue in next week’s grandlakenewsonline.com issue. Perhaps a clarification before that time might tone down my opinion piece, but this issue has festered until it has reached a boiling point. Do the polls not indicate how fed up the electorate has become with inaction and word games?

As the late, great Tip O’Neill once said, “All politics is local.”

Cheers from a disgruntled Grand Lake

The response from Dr. Cox was as predictable as the low lake level for the Labor Day holiday weekend.

“I stand by my comments. FERC is the one that denied GRDA's request not to lower the lake this year, since they were not seeding millet. FERC is the one that told GRDA to lower the lake by opening the gates rather than generating power (as they wanted to measure the dissolved oxygen level in the tailrace when no generation was being done).”

He went on to add, “The "F" in FERC stands for FEDERAL. With all due respect to our Senators, I regret they are not being more supportive of the Oklahomans that live on, play on, visit, and support the economy of Grand Lake.”

Rep. Doug Cox M.D.

I was contacted by Dr. Coburn’s field representative last Friday. And although our discussion was lengthy, it didn’t leave me with a warm fuzzy feeling about our Senators coming to the rescue. The short version of the message from the staffer was simple; any rule curve change affecting the Grand Lake would have to be initiated by GRDA. My message to her was just as short and simple; we want someone, senators, congressmen, governors or even the president to lean on the authority to initiate the steps to get r’ done.

That next step, in my opinion, is the formation of a group or committee, made up of Grand Lake stakeholders to develop a rule curve the majority could support. In a perfect world, GRDA Chief Executive Officer Kevin Easley would be leading this parade. Right behind him would be officials from state and federal wildlife interests, anticipating an off-site managed program for migrating waterfowl. And right behind them would be thousands of residential and commercial property owners with an interest in the outcome of this initiative. But who is going to step up to the plate and lead this initiative for the future? That is the $64,000.00 question. Now that dated me didn’t it?

See Ya’ Around the Pond!