Duke Energy is seeking to amend its Water Quality Certificate in several ways. Most importantly, it proposes to increase the levels of lakes James, Norman and Wylie by 6 inches each. This will add more than 1.1 billion cubic feet of water to the lakes upstream of Lake Wateree, increasing significantly the risk of flooding at Lake Wateree. The evidence offered by Duke fails to demonstrate why such a dramatic increase in the amount of upstream water will not lead to a higher risk of flooding at Lake Wateree. The only “evidence” Duke offers is a “modeling” that does not appear to include the raised levels of lakes Norman and Wylie in the calculations. No independent evaluation of the Duke model has been done, and the amendment of the Certificate should not be approved until adequate evidence is shown that the proposed course of action would not place undue risk of flooding at Lake Wateree (See Public Notice on page 14).
Jeff Morris
Lake Wateree
