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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

I failed to mention that the mussels and sturgeon that they are
protecting are not in GA, but in Florida. On the news today, they said
that the CoE was actually *increasing* the amount of water released from
the dam because other reservoirs further south in the watershed are dry.
Personally, I think animals are better survivalists than we give them
credit for..Mollusca is one of the oldest phylums-sturgeons are ancient
fish-surely they have a great ability to adapt and survive relatively
short periods of drought? Mussels are highly mobile..consider what the
zebra mussel has done.
I know there are water issues out in the Southwest.  Perhaps it is my
ignorance of the specific issues, but I don't equate the the two...
Here, a drought of several years has reduced supply..demand and growth
has been relatively consistent over that time, compared to the demand
and growth of cities in the naturally dry west.  We are not naturally
dry here.  We haven't had to rely on one river like the Colorado-we have
an abundance of lakes and rivers, most of which depend on rain, which is
not falling.  Even the spring-fed bodies of water are suffering, but
without rain, those underground aquifers are drying up and the water
table is low this time of year anyway.  Groundwater has historically
been plentiful here, not same as in the deserts out west.  We don't get
our water from a snow pack, it all comes from semi-local rain.  There
are no aqueducts-just rivers.
For those that have never been here, north Georgia is almost identical
to southern Missouri in its flora, fauna, and topography. It is highly
forested and hilly, with lots of springs and creeks and rivers.  If it
can happen here in a few short years, it can happen there.
I live near a river called the Oostanaula.  It is a word of Cherokee
origin meaning "shoal river" or "rock barring the way" river.(This was
Cherokee country until 1830 or so-New Echota is just 10 miles away
upriver)  During the time of the civil war and earlier, the river was
used to move cotton and other crops, so it has pretty much always been
considered navigable.  It is about 150-250 feet wide on average, and
it's rather muddy with steep banks.  There are several ferry locations
in the area, as it was not a river you could just ride through. I never
understood why it would have been named shoal river because it seemed
pretty deep to me and I did not see any shoals or large rocks.  But in
the last month or so, sure enough, car sized boulders are becoming
visible in the 'channel', and islands have emerged.  It is truly, now, a
shoal river, and I can't see it being navigated by a boat of any size
now.  The fact that the name is old, and now applies again, goes to the
cyclical climate history of this area.  While the whites have never seen
it this low, the Cherokee obviously did.

Bev


EarthNSky wrote:

> Do you think it is right for the Corp of Engineers to continue to 
> release water in order to protect endangered species like freshwater 
> mussels and sturgeon
--
Bevanron of EarthNSky Farm   Sleep well tonight, for somewhere in the
ocean's depths, MY son is protecting YOUR freedom.