Lake levels to be subject
of April 27 LMA meeting

BY OLLIE MOYE
Contributing Writer

A more exact date for raising the level of Lake Murray is expected to be announced by South Carolina Electric and Gas (SCE&G) at the annual spring membership meeting of the Lake Murray Association. The meeting is set for Tuesday, April 27, at Lexington High School. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., and all members of LMA as well as anyone else interested in joining the organization are extended a special invitation by LMA President Bob Keener to attend.

“We invite anyone interested in the future of Lake Murray to join our organization,” Keener said, emphasizing that “you don’t have to live on the lake to join this organization. It is not a lake homeowners group, but rather one that accepts membership from anyone interested in the lake and its use.”

Guest speakers will be Sam Stockman, SCE&G’s project manager for the remediation work underway at the dam; and Gus Tjoumas of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). “We’re making the assumption they will tell us when the water is coming back,” Keener said.

Ms. Joy Downs, a former president and current executive director, sees the Lexington meeting as being “very beneficial to all lake users.” She added, “We anticipate a final date as to when the lake will be allowed to rise, an event we all have been anxiously awaiting. Everyone that uses the lake, especially the commercial people, have been greatly affected by the draw down and now we are looking forward to the return of the water as quick as it is possible this summer. It is important that we try to achieve a 354 foot minimum this year.”

At a recent membership meeting held in Saluda, Stockman explained that earlier projections that a rise in lake levels may fall in an April/May time frame was delayed at least a month due to unexpected gullies that were discovered when digging at the deepest part of the project. “We encourage everyone to come and ask any questions you may have relating to the draw down or other significant lake issues,” she said. “We will stay until all are answered.”

Other business on the agenda will include announcing LMA’s Lake Citizen of the Year and electing new directors. The following have been nominated to serve on the Board of Directors – Gen. Fred Woerner, Dave Landis, John Marshall, Michael White, John Martinez, George Duke Jr., Don Tyler, Carol Williams, Kenneth Fox, Lee Barder, Joy Downs, Richard Kidder, Roy Parker, Lucy Wingard and Ron Abbott.

Reprinted with the permission of the Lake Murray News
 

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FERC official unsure when water level can rise


BY OLLIE MOYE
Contributing Writer

The large crowd of Lake Murray residents and users attending last week’s semi-annual membership meeting of the Lake Murray Association at Lexington High School expected to hear a specific date that the refilling of the lake might begin this summer.
But they came away with little assurance that what is considered “a normal lake level” would be attained anytime this year.
The only positive information on lake levels came in a commitment from Jim M. Landreth, Vice President of Fossil & Hydro Operations, that whatever level the lake might reach this fall would not be drained during the winter months unless SCE&G encountered an emergency. The lake has been drawn down 15 feet below its pool of 360 feet msl as a safety precaution during the early stages of building a backup dam at the SCE&G’s Saluda River hydro generation plant.
No definite decision on when the lake might start refilling can be pinpointed now,  according to an attempted explanation by Washington’s Gus Tjoumas of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, because the project is mired in more uncertainties that has caused a giant flag of caution to wave over the dam.
From Day One, the FERC and SCE&G officials have left a crack in the door, careful not to make any firm commitments to refilling the lake, always leaving room for “unexpected” problems.
And problems have come. SCE&G officials very gently broke the word earlier this year that their first projected deadline of April-May was tossed in the water’s flow-through current when gullies were discovered in the bedrock area’s deepest parts of the Saluda River -- gullies that had to be filled with cement. At this announcement, the time frame for plugging the hole was extended to May-June.
Now that progress of digging the cells has been narrowed from its original number to only one and a half, those being located in the deepest areas of the river bed, the FERC official revealed to the gathering at Lexington a startling piece of information – dam movement has been detected.
“We’re concerned about that,” Tjoumas said, his comment casting a deep shadow of doubt over a previous projection given by Sam Stockman, SCE&G’s project manager, who told the group during a progress report presentation that “we (SCE&G)  started out with a May time frame, but we’re still holding to the June time frame... Sometime in June we will be to a point where we can get together and make the decision...”
Tjoumas told the audience that the problem is being closely monitored “to make sure that it is registering what we’re doing,” adding that “if there’s indication there is a problem, it’ll have to be shored up.”

NO COMMITMENT AT THIS TIME

Tjoumas indicated that because of this latest problem, there can be no commitment as to when the water level will start rising. As has been stressed by the FERC and SCE&G from the very beginning of the dam remediation project, the priority safety for an estimated 125,000 residents on the down side of the dam who would be in harm’s way should the worst happen.
Tjoumas did assure the gathering, however, that “at the earliest, there will be a joint effort with everybody monitoring the conditions, and finally the board of consultants and SCE&G and us (the FERC) will look at the interpretations of our research...and once SCE&G is comfortable with what they think should be the rate of progress and the details of when they should start, then they will ask us if we agree with them.”
Someone in the audience asked how much the dam had moved.
Stockman answered that it has moved “1.2 inches at the most,” and attributed some of the movement might have resulted from “additional fill.”
The SCE&G project manager stressed that “the whole project has been done for the safety of the public, and we don’t want to do something at the last minute that will jeopardize this.”
Stockman assured that “we have watched the system as it developed and when we saw the movement, we have taken corrective action. We will continue to do that.”
He said the remediation project at the Saluda Dam “has been the most instrumented dam project in the country. We will closely monitor all this instrumentation. Also we will have people out walking the dam looking for anything we might identify as unusual, and if something along the way stops us, we’ll just have to stop.”

SURPRISES DURING DAM WORK

In other remarks, Tjoumas told the audience that “there have been several surprises during the project...There have been some setbacks as well as ways to improve progress. Some of the things have been considerably surprising to us. There have been 11 meetings of the board of consultants. It’s been a sticky situation at times and tricky to deal with.”
Commenting on one of the more recent problems with the support walls, Tjoumas said “they had to be grouted out and anchored to keep the dam from wanting to adjust itself and move around.” He said that SCE&G made the decision to address the problem by installing new support walls.
Answering a question, Stockman said the dam movement was noted before the new walls were put in.
Tjoumas praised the effort of the contractor for “an excellent job in trying to regroup and move ahead.”
In a statement referencing when the water level might return, Tjoumas said: “With respect to being ready for getting to a point of making a decision to raising the lake, there is a regular flow plan and I understand people are certainly aware of that. At this time I don’t know what that means...when everything is ready to go and that decision is made, there’ll certainly be detailed discussion with the board of consultants and the design engineer and SCE&G. Right now, I can’t tell you and SCE&G certainly can’t tell you (when the water level will return to normal). But things are working to get to that point. I think that’s really an explanation of where we are today.”
He added, “The progress of the dam has really gone along very well as far as the FERC is concerned.”
Newly-elected LMA President Richard Kidder assured the FERC that “those of us who live on the upside of the dam are very grateful for the safety precautions that have been taken and I am sure those who live on the downstream side are most grateful for this safety.”
The change of leadership also took place during the meeting. Kidder, a former president, was presented the gavel by outgoing president Bob Keener. Prior to turning the gavel over to Kidder, Keener introduced the new slate of LMA directors.

KIDDER: LMA GOALS ARE THE SAME

Kidder, who is serving his second term as LMA president, told the membership that the goals of the organization are the same as they have been since it organized 10 years ago.
These include addressing the three key issues of lake level, water quality and quality of life. “We want the 354 feet minimum lake level written into the new license,” he said. “We hope to get the FERC to recognize the importance of this.”
Also during the meeting, Steve de Kozlowski of the Department of Natural Resources gave a report on grass carp. DNR, under Kozlowski’s direction, put in 64,500 grass carp last year, at 15 fish per vegetated acre of hydrilla.
“We cautioned everybody in the beginning that it’s going to take approximately three years for the carp to do their thing,” he reminded. He said DNR has no plans to put more carp into the lake this year unless hydrilla coverage expands beyond 4,200 acres. He said the department would not be concerned if hydrilla gets into deeper water this year “because when the lake comes back up, it will die out.”

Reprinted with the permission of the Lake Murray News

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Ed Fetner is LMA’s ‘Citizen of the Year’

BY OLLIE MOYE
Contributing Writer

Ed Fetner, whose popular Fishunt maps of Lake Murray have proven life-saving to many boaters who through the years have lost their way on the lake, and which also has led thousands of fishermen to their favorite fishing holes, has been honored by the Lake Murray Association with the “Citizen of the Year” Award.
Fetner received the honor at the recent spring membership meeting of the LMA, held at Lexington High School. The award was presented by outgoing LMA President Bob Keener.
Fishunt Maps dates back to the early 50’s, when Fetner conceived the idea after becoming lost on a fishing trip with a cousin. At that time, Fetner was a map draftsman with the South Carolina Highway Department. He used the skills he learned there to draft a map that would be helpful to lake users in finding their way.
Since he and his cousin were going fishing at Santee when he became lost, his first lake map was of Lake Marion. Then he became interested in producing a map for Lake Murray. The Lake Murray map came in 1952 and has become very popular in Lake Murray Country. Later, he also added a map of Lake Wataree.
Fetner came up with the name Fishunt for his maps one night while lying in bed trying to solve the problem. “I was half awake and it came to me that, since it was going to be a map used by people who would be hunting or fishing, I would drop the ‘ing’ off both words and join them together.” Hence the name, Fishunt.
Fetner was with the highway department for eight years when he learned of a job opening at Lockheed in Marietta, Ga., which would allow him to pursue his primary ambition of working in aviation.
He got the job in the engineering department at Lockheed, but because of complications in family planning – one of his children required special medical attention which might not be readily available in that area – he made the decision to return to his native home in Columbia. He was able to get his mapping job back at the highway department. But shortly after that, Wilbur Smith and Associates of Columbia opened up a structural engineering section, and he was offered a position there. He remained with Smith until he retired in 1983 to devote his full time to his Fishunt map business.
His first Fishunt map was very basic, offering mostly an outline of the lake and identifying the network of roads around it. Updates through the years have resulted in much more detailed information. For example, in the early 70s, when sonar fish finders became popular, Fetner added lake contour lines.
His maps have been updated, on the average, every two and a half years. Each update requires considerable preparation because of the constant changing road patterns brought about by new developments around the four-county perimeter of the lake.
“In the world of mapping, as with aviation, there is no room for errors,” Fetner says. To eliminate them, he personally drives to the locations on his maps and checks everything himself. He estimates he has driven over 95 per cent of the roads around Lake Murray that are on the map.
Updates in more recent maps have included the locations of the 20 landing sites for the Lifereach helicopter, a project completed by the Lake Murray Association.
And his newer maps have included the new Global Positioning System (GPS). GPS involves satellites put up by the defense department about 12.5 miles above earth that send out signals that can be used in determining positions.
A major change that occurred to his maps in 1994 was the addition of the reference points for night navigation on the lake. These lights were put up as a project by the Lake Murray Recreation and Tourism operation. Fetner served as a member of a committee that determined location of the lights.
In response to a survey he conducted in which he asked operators of landings what they might want to see on the maps, he began naming islands. Several islands already had names, such as Shull, Dreher, Bundrick and Bomb (which has several names, including Doolittle). He selects names of points and islands very carefully. “I name them for a local person if I can,” he said. “And if I can’t find an appropriate local person, I name them whatever I think appropriate.”
Fetner has been a member of the Lake Murray Power Squadron since 1965. He has won numerous awards given by that organization and has been honored with life member status. He has passed all the courses the Power Squadron offers. He served as commander of the Lake Murray Power Squadron when it was called the Congaree Power Squadron. He is past District Commander of District, which includes all of South Carolina and part of Georgia.
He is married to the former Nadine Chapman of Mullins and they have two children, Carolyn and Edward III. The Fetners moved to Lake Murray in 1973, residing on Bear Creek out of Chapin.
Fetner also spends much of his time pursuing and sharing his special fondness of the history of the Lake Murray area. “Lake Murray and the history of the area is one of my traits,” he said. “There’s a lot of history around Lake Murray. I’ve gotten involved in that.”
Much of his information on Lake Murray and the area surrounding it is shared with readers of the Lake Murray News in his columns that appear regularly in this newspaper.
Past recipients of the LMA Citizen of the Year honor include: Randall Shealy, chairman of the Lake Murray Association; George Hoxie and George Frederick, who service the reference light system on the lake; the late Bob Andrews, who coined the word “lakel,” and Ollie Moye, former editor of the Lake Murray News who now serves as contributing writer.

Reprinted with the permission of the Lake Murray News
 

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A boater and hunter educator for six years with DNR, Kearse has actually been involved in the Ladies Day on the Lake program all eight years in one way or another. In addition to this training program, Kearse recently has been designated as the top coordinator for the Take One, Make One youth program.

He especially acknowledged other DNR officers who assisted with this year’s training program. “They’re all very professional officers, and they’re here from several counties across the state.” He listed the officers as Ben Thomas, William Matthews, Tommy Morris, Steve Simpson, Al Eidson and William Swink. He also recognized Gregg Lucas and Ross Self, who assisted with the kayaking program and William Matthews, a retired DNR officer who assisted with teaching trailer backing.

Reprinted with the permission of the Lake Murray News

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LMA Meeting to Feature Celebration of Water’s Return

Lake Murray Association’s semi-annual membership meeting will be held at Irmo Elementary School Monday, Sept. 20, at 7 pm, said LMA President Richard Kidder.
“This is a time for celebrating,” said Kidder, “and that’s what we’ll be doing at our fall membership meeting. After two long years, we are starting to see a few less stumps and islands.”
He said that updates will be given on the latest lake activities, including weed control/grass carp, dam remediation and fall/winter lake level.
“Also we’re giving a number of attractive door prizes,” he said. The list includes dinner for two at Catch 22, a framed 8x12 print of Michael Story’s purple martin sanctuary, dinner for two at Brix Bistro and two gift certificates toward framing.
“Once the lake is back to full pool, we will of course continue to promote a minimum lake level of 354 feet during the winter months,” reminded Kidder. “This is one of the main objectives of the LMA at its formation 10 years ago.”

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Bob Keener, Lake Watchman

For 20 years, Bob Keener of Gilbert has been an activist and spokesman for issues affecting quality of life at the lake. Approaching his seventh year as president of the Lake Murray Southside Community Association, Keener also was a founder and first president of the Lake Murray Association 10 years ago. He was re-elected to that office in 2003.
    “I don’t know of anybody who’s more devoted, outspoken and vocal on issues affecting the lake,” says Rich Kidder, current LMA president. “He addresses...water quality, lake levels and intelligent building and development on the lake.”
Under his leadership, the LMA began bi-monthly meetings with South Carolina Electric & Gas Co., who owns the lake, to discuss dam remediation issues and to encourage the company to reduce annual fluxuations of lake levels from eight to four feet. This would reduce the average full-pool level of 358 feet (above sea level) to no less than 354 feet.
    “At 354 feet, 100 percent of the businesses can operate,” Keener says, “95 to 98 percent of the docks are good and 100 percent of the launch ramps are operable so the lake is accessible.”
    Working with the state Department of Natural Resources, Keener and the LMA advocated using grass-eating carp to control growth of hydrilla in the lake. “Bob and the LMA were very supportive of our efforts to put grass carp in the lake,” says Steve de Kozlowski, DNR’s chief of environmental conservation. “He’s been involved with many things affecting the lake. He’s a smart, reasoned voice, someone who takes the time to learn and understand the issues before speaking out. The lake community is fortunate to have someone so articulate.”
In 2003, DNR released 63,400 grass carp in about eight locations at the lake to combat the aquatic weed. De Kozlowski says measureable success isn’t expected until at least another year.
    Keener also was involved with boating safety, advocating a law with teeth in it to punish boat operators driving under the influence.
A West Virginia native and West Point graduate, Keener retired from the Army in 1980 as a colonel. He had served 28 years and was executive officer with the National Guard in Washington, D.C. His wife, Kay, worked for NASA when they married in 1972. That year, they bought a lot on Shull Island on the lake’s south shore. Keener says he had fallen in love with the area while stationed at Fort Jackson in the mid-1960s.
    “I liked South Carolina best of all the places I had been. The people, pace, climate were all to our liking.”
Until 1980, the Keeners spent their summer vacations camping out on their lot, eventually graduating from a tent to a travel trailer. After weathering the fury of Hurricane David in 1979, they named their new home Windwood.
Once settled, Keener joined the Lake Murray Shore Road Community Association’s efforts to oppose a private developer’s plans for a cesspool on Shore Road. The association rallied with hundreds of people in the community and won.
Soon after, Keener helped fight for extended area telephone service coverage for the former Pond Branch Telephone Company customers. He and his neighbors had been paying for toll calls to local schools, the hospital and other local places.
The Keeners say the biggest changes they’ve witnessed on the lake involve development.
    “If we are not very prudent and cautious, one day we’ll find our shoreline overdeveloped and the water quality deteriorating rapidly,” Keener says. “The turn-around cost to correct that would be astronomical.”
His vision for the future includes better controls on water quality.
“The water quality has deteriorated,” he says. “There is an algae problem with runoff from fertilizers, grass and shrubs and leaking septic systems. The upper end of the lake in Saluda County has a high phosphorus content. The area has a lot of chicken farms. There is mercury in the upper Saluda River.”
Yet Bob and Kay Keener wouldn’t think of living anywhere else. Their neighborhood is “quiet, peaceful, restful,” Keener says. “The scenes are always changing. The sunsets are magnificent. There are lots of birds. We love this lake. That’s why we’re here.”

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LMA to celebrate rising lake level

BY OLLIE MOYE

Contributing Writer

The Lake Murray Association has scheduled a membership meeting for Tuesday, Nov. 16, at Macedonia Lutheran Church on the lake’s Newberry County shoreline.
“This is another attempt for the association’s membership to gather publicly and celebrate the return of water to Lake Murray following the two-year draw down necessary to do dam construction work at the Saluda Hydro Plant,” said LMA President Richard Kidder in his invitation to members and non-members to attend the meeting.
“We’re all glad to see the lake water return,” Kidder stated, adding that “the real good news is that the lake not only has come up, but it will stay up for the winter. SCE&G’s plans are for the lake to continue to rise to as much as 356 feet or even 358 feet; how fast and how much depends on the rain.”
Kidder said topics for discussion will include phosphorous impairment of western portion of the lake. He said a question and answer period will be held.
Numerous door prizes will be awarded throughout the evening, including Lake Tours Purple Martin tickets.
Aerial photographs of Lake Murray also are for sale, with a discount price offered to LMA members.
Kidder emphasized the meeting also is open to non-members, adding that memberships will be available to those interested.

Reprinted with the permission of the Lake Murray News

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LMA director Downs attends lake management conference in Victoria

Ms. Joy Downs, one of the founders of the Lake Murray Association who for the past two years has served as the organization’s executive director, has just returned from a three-day symposium of the North American Lake Management Society (NALMS), held in Victoria, Canada, bringing back with her a volume of information she believes will be beneficial to the future of Lake Murray.
“It was a very educational trip as far as obtaining information that will be of value to the Board of Director of LMA as they study ways to improve the quality of Lake Murray for all its users,” Ms. Downs said.
She intends to highlight some of the information she brought back with her at the next meeting of the Board (the November meeting already was held before she returned from her trip).
“I have ordered several tapes of the various seminars,” she said. “And by the time the Board holds its next meeting, I will have studied and analyzed them.” She said the should be able to make some important suggestions to the Board that will enable it to address some of the problems at Lake Murray, especially in the area of educational outreach.
“We’re probably going to conduct another survey on lake levels,” she indicated.
Illustrating the importance of the NALMS conference, Ms. Downs says “it is outstanding because it brings together all lake problems in North America. So many of the lakes of this continent are natural lakes, but we at Lake Murray are mostly familiar with reservoirs.”
Ms. Downs said that she has found during her connections with NALMS that “areas that have reservoirs also have problems. They may be different from ours, but they’re major problems just the same.”
She emphasizes that one of the important functions of NALMS is to maintain the quality of water for future generations.
“If we don’t pay attention to the quality of water in our lakes today, our waters are going to become a mess in the future,” she said. “Every water body has some particular problem.”
NALMS is made up of people who live in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
“The conference is made up of professionals and lay people,” she informed. “There are abstracts presented at these symposiums and you have an opportunity to listen to as many as 12 speakers during a day.”
She said she focused her attention to conferences dealing with hydrilla and water quality.
Ms. Joy said LMA has recently made application for a 319 federal grant in partnership with USC and SCE&G to do a total maximum daily load study on an area in the western part of the lake that has an impairment of sulfur..
“Many of the discussions in Victoria were on impaired water or waters that could become impaired,” she said. “The conference put out a ton of information on water quality. There were several seminar on education and outreach, which were of much interest to me.”
LMA is a member of the Lake and Watershed Association of South Carolina (LWASC), which is a chapter of the North American Association.
She said that anyone who wishes to pay the registration fee can attend the NALMS Conference. She attended not only to represent the LMA, but also the State Association, of which she is a member of the Board of Directors. She attended with Ms. Suzanne Thomas-Cole, a resident of Lake Hartwell, who is president of LWASC.
She said that the bill which Representative Pombo from California introduced in the House this year (HR 4513) was not on the conference agenda. The bill, which has passed the House but has not been voted on in the Senate, exempts a large class of energy projects from complying with the core function of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) under the guise of supporting “renewable energy.”
“But I had a conversation with the chairman of the legislative affairs committee,” she said, “His comment was it has not gone through the Senate this year, and probably won’t come up until next year. They’re interested in the legislation and will be tracking it.
She clarified, however, that NALMS is an educational group, and does not do litigation. “That’s the Rivers Group that does that,” she said. “NALMS is there to inform and all their seminars are educational.”
Reminding that the re-licensing process of SCE&G’s Saluda Hydro Project (Lake Murray) is scheduled to begin next summer, she said that under the proposed bill, all stakeholders in the lake, including private citizens and governmental agencies, would be denied an opportunity for meaningful review and oversight.
“To insure that the lake and its shoreline meet current environmental standards and the recreational needs of the lake be maintained, it is important that all stakeholders, including the agencies and concerned parties, be included in the re-licensing process. This is why the proposed legislation must not be approved.”

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LMA praises SCE&G for ‘change’ in attitude about lake:

SCE&G’s attitude toward the level of Lake Murray “has changed substantially” since Lake Murray Association President Richard Kidder joined this organization nine years ago.
Focusing attention to this change during last week’s LMA membership meeting at Macedonia Lutheran Church, located on the Newberry County shoreline of the lake, Kidder highly complimented the power company “on the change in attitude that we’ve encountered” more recently.
Dissatisfaction with SCE&G’s decision to lower the lake to 350 feet MSL by the end of each year (15 feet below the lake’s pool) was the motivator that resulted in lake residents forming the LMA ten years ago.
“I’ve been involved in LMA for nine of those 10 years,” Kidder told his audience at Macedonia. “When LMA first formed, the attitude of SCE&G was ‘we own the lake and we’ll do what we damn well please. Go away and don’t bother us.’ But that attitude has now changed substantially. Today, we have a good dialogue with them. We meet with SCE&G’s top officials every two months and we have frank and honest discussions. We have to compliment SCE&G on the change in attitude that we’ve encountered.”
Kidder had opened the meeting by announcing that “tonight is a celebration for all of us. The lake is back up to its usual level and that is a reason to celebrate. Actually, the lake level was 354.34 this afternoon.”
Kidder informed the audience that LMA has had a number of discussions with SCE&G officials on the lake level situation. This organization has maintained since its inception that the lake should not be lowered below 354 feet and boater safety concerns have been cited time and time again as a reason for freezing the low mark at this level.
“As you know, they (SCE&G) pulled it down a lot lower during the winter. They’re now trying to work with us.” Kidder added that “they’re also trying to make amends for the lake being down two years.”
The lake level began rising this past July after being drawn down to 345 feet for two years to accommodate necessary construction work involved in building the new buttress dam at the Saluda Hydro Station.
The LMA president announced that the organization plans to conducted another survey soon with regard to lake levels.
“We did one about six or seven years ago, and at that time the consensus was that at 354 feet about 80 to 90 per cent of the lake residents had usable water,” he said. “We’ll probably be doing that survey again.”
He said one of the reasons for doing the survey again is because SCE&G is entering the relicensing review.
At this point, Kidder reiterated that SCE&G does not own the lake.
“Some news media (not the Lake Murray News) claim that SCE&G owns the lake,” he said. “Wrong. That’s flat out, dead wrong. They own the dam. They also own the bottom of the lake, most of it, not all. But the water is a public federal waterway owned by the people of the United States and the people of South Carolina. SCE&G has a license to use the lake for fuel, to generate it for electricity. And that’s all. And their license is coming up for renewal. We’ll be talking about it later because one of our goals is to modify several items of the license, one of those being the minimum lake level.”
He reminded that the relicensing process surfaces only about every 30 years. “There have been a lot of environmental laws passed since the existing license was issued, and the new license will have to reflect those concerns,” stated Kidder.”Basically what I’m trying to say is that in 30 years the character of the lake has changed. Thirty years ago the lake was used primarily for hydro generating. Now the usage is primarily recreational.”
LMA’s executive director and former LMA president Ms. Joy Downs also made several marks centering on lake levels.
She informed that she had been in conversation with Jim Landreth (?), vice president of fossel fuel, recently and “he has assured me that for the first time ever, they’re going to experiment with trying to keep the lake at the 354 feet level during the winter. They’re going to try to set up to control the inflow.”
She explained that “Jim is trying very hard to get them to honor his request to try to keep the lake under control this year, so we may be looking at a whole new event in our lives.”
A problem facing SCE&G, she identified, is their concern that the lake could rise two or three feet in one day during the hurricane season.
“All of us think that’s impossible, but that’s what they think could happen, and they have assured us they’re going to do everything possible this year to keep the level at 354 feet this winter,” she said. “I think that without this association, they never would have taken a look at this.”
She clarified, however, that she has been told that keeping the lake at 354 feet during the winter is only an experiment for this year. “They can’t promise us anything beyond this year,” she added.
Also discussed during the meeting was some phosphorous impairment detected in the western portion of the lake.
A map of Lake Murray that was on display focused on flashing lights that marked areas identified as containing  phosphorous levels high enough to require that a study be done.
“So LMA is partnering with USC, Central Midlands and the Piedmont RC&G to conduct a study in these areas,” Ms. Joy said.
She said the study, conducted at a cost of $500,000, will take three years to accomplish.
“The first year of the study will involve surveys of the shoreline conducted by USC that will require a lot of hours,” she said. “During the second year, we will be doing a lot of education outreach. We (LMA) have committed $87,000 in man hours at $16.50 per hour. We’re going to have a lot of people involved.”
Kidder told the audience that “we’ll be looking for a whole lot of volunteers. First of all, during the research stage, we’ve got to go out and walk the banks and find out where things are. Later on, we will be contacting the agricultural interest.”
One way the present membership could help, he said, is to work for increased membership in the LMA. “The more members we have, the louder our voice will be when we come to the relicensing  process,” he assured.
During the meeting, several door prizes were given.
 

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Lake’s phosphorus level is subject of new study

BY OLLIE MOYE
Contributing Writer

A $500,000 Total Maximum Daily Load study of the upper end of Lake Murray, necessary to determine why phosphorus levels are higher than acceptable EPA standards in the Bush River and Saluda River Watershed, will improve the water supply and enhance the fishing and recreational boating opportunities on Lake Murray, according to LMA President Richard Kidder.
Addressing this subject at last month’s quarterly LMA membership meeting, Kidder said the goal of this project is to develop TMDLs for phosphorus for two monitoring stations (S309 and S223) and to carry out TMDL.
“Implementations will lead to attainment of phosphorus standards protective of the many uses of Lake Murray,” he said. “The reduction will help to limit algae blooms and other deleterious effects resulting from excessive nutrient loading.”
LMA submitted application to the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) for a grant to accomplish the study. Others involved include the University of South Carolina, East Piedmont RC&D, Central midlands Council of Governments and SCE&G.
“LMA would participate in shoreline surveys collecting information for the studies, but its main focus would be the implementation of Best Management Practices (BMP) where problems are obvious and educating the general public to what they can do to help protect the water body,” Kidder said.
At the Macedonia meeting, LMA members were asked to contribute a lot of help toward accomplishing the survey.
LMA had on display at the meeting a map of Lake Murray which used flashing lights to mark areas identified as containing phosphorus levels high enough to require that a study be done.
LMA Executive Director Ms. Joy Downs told the audience that the first year of the study will involve surveys of the shoreline conducted by USC. During the second year, she said, “we will be doing a lot of education outreach. We (LMA) have committed $87,000 in man hours at $16.60 per hour. We’re going to need to have a lot of people involved.”
She said that LMA has committed to approximately 4,000 hours of manpower over the three-year period of the study.
“In this way, LMA can contribute to the grant by providing ‘in kind work,’” said Ms. Joy. “LMA, with its membership and outreach activities, provides the best vehicle for getting this work accomplished.”
She emphasizes that LMA’s mission in the grant is to lead the education process to correct the impairment.
“LMA would be responsible for stakeholders meetings and 16 meetings in four counties,” said Ms. Downs, “along with many other outreach programs to assist the study and implementation of the TMDL.”
She said LMA also would integrate the educational content developed by USC into these meetings and outreach programs. In addition, LMA will provide outreach through news letters and special meetings.
Kidder suggested probable causes of the problem could be upstream sewage plants, defective septic systems, residential and agricultural fertilizer and animal (chicken and cattle) wastes.
“Many things can cause a phosphorus impairment,” Kidder said. “The most difficult to determine is ‘non point source’ runoff. It is not unusual to find farms that raise livestock, contributing when they are not fenced from the lake or streams that run into the lake. Other major runoff problems can be caused by individual users and homeowners on a water body. Homeowners don’t realize the impact of fertilizers, pesticides, etc., that often run into the lakes or streams. Users of the lake are sometimes not considering the damage they do when they let gasoline or oil run in the lake. When boat owners do not use a pump out station, it causes obvious problems.”
He emphasized that Lake Murray is a no discharge lake and dumping into the lake is against the law.
“But, unfortunately some do not heed the restriction,” he said. “Faulty septic systems many times are the cause of the impairment.”
He explained that point source pollution is when the source of the pollution is run directly into the water body, such as a sewage plant.
“These are highly regulated, and if they are out of compliance, it is usually handled immediately by the regulating agency,” Kidder said.
He said these sources would also be considered in the study.

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