Lieutenant Governor removes head from dry lake bed, is confused by world, reinserts head into ground
Friday, December 14th, 2007Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle continued blaming Mother Nature and mussels for the drought, and while he may be correct in that regard — we can’t control the weather, and the Corps’ mandatory releases, while important to sustain marine life downstream, have accelerated the dropping levels of Lake Lanier — he’s wrong when he says development doesn’t play a part in water shortage. There’s concern about it in Colorado, and those people know water shortages.
From an article in the Gainesville Times about Cagle’s speech yesterday morning to the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce:
“We’re not in this (water) crisis because of growth,” Cagle said. “We’re in this situation for two reasons. One, we’re in the worst drought in our state’s history. Secondly, the Corps of Engineers have mismanaged the lake (Lanier).”
He accused the corps of allowing water to go downstream “for the purpose of feeding mussels.”
(shakes head, rubs eyes) Mr. Lieutenant Governor, sir, this “man vs. mussels” thing is getting really old. We really must be sure to not leave out those power plants located downstream that are keeping all our lightbulbs aglow.
And state Rep. Carl Rogers, R-Gainesville, doesn’t necessarily agree with Cagle’s assessment of the water shortage situation. From that same article:
“I get to see 30 sky cranes every day,” Rogers said of his regular trips to Atlanta. “Atlanta is using resources. I’m not blaming Atlanta for all of our issues. We just don’t have the water flow that other states have.”
Rogers also called for using the time of reduced levels for dredging on Lanier to make it larger and deeper in selected areas.
