Rich Stern wrote:
Rep. Charlie Norwood of Georgia's 9th congressional district, has introduced a
bill (HR 2753, link below) to have the Army Corp of Engineers cede federal
lands above the full pool line of Lakes Hartwell, Russel and Strom Thurmond to
the local counties.

IMO, bad idea. (In the interest of full disclosu I own a lakeside cabin
adjacent to land managed by the COE)

I have been very impressed with how the COE manages lakes. The natural beauty
is preserved, inexpensive power gets generated, floods are controlled,
reservoirs are maintained, and citizens enjoy many recreational opportunities.
An example of a successful federal program that serves it's stated purpose and
benefits millions of people. In other words, a rare success.

If the local counties in Georgia and South Carolina gain control of this land,
it will become a development free-for-all. The local governments have no
experience managing this land, and cannot possibly be expected to maintain the
balance of interests the COE has done so well for decades. Each county will
take a different approach, and the lakes will experience the impact of widely
differing policies that will unpredictably impact the local economy,
environment, residents and visitors.

If you think you might be impacted by this change, I urge you to read the bill
and send your comments to Rep. Norwood.

Link to the proposed bill:

http://www.theorator.com/bills108/hr2753.html

Link to Rep. Norwood's House web site:

http://www.house.gov/norwood/


-- Rich Stern
www.nitroowners.com - The Nitro and Tracker Owners Web Site
www.mypontoon.com - The Pontoon Boat Web Site
www.fishingreportdatabase.com - The Fishing Report Database
www.mysporttrac.com - The Sport Trac Web Site


Very interesting post Rich:
I am considering getting a small place on Hartwell myself as I am
located on hwy85 20 some miles north of Atlanta. And would like to
retreat to somthing not as busy as Lanier. The COE does a nice job of
keeping lots of public access on Lanier (as you most likely know) This
bill is rather interesting and I am suspicious as well that there is not
some unspoken development planed.

I have only been on Hartwell a couple of times and I liked it a lot. We
first started considering looking at properity a couple of years ago and
were concerned about some heavey metal contanination that I had heard
about at Hartwell. The CEO responded to a email request for information
that not only included info on Hardwells history but all of GA and
pretty much everywhere that are active.

Capt Jack R.