GLUE Member Report: November 7, 2008

The long awaited vote on habitable structures will take place at next Wednesday’s GRDA board meeting. The meeting is scheduled to take place in Vinita and gets underway at 10:00 a.m. They will be taking public comments at the meeting. If you would like to speak, a sign-up sheet is available prior to the meeting. If you have or plan to have a habitable structure in the future I would encourage your attendance.

I will attend the meeting and have provided the board with my written comments which can be found below. I’ll issue a report following the meeting.

Cheers

November 7, 2008

From: Grand Lakers United Enterprise

Subject: Comments regarding Habitable Structures on Grand Lake

To: Grand River Dam Authority Board of Directors

On Wednesday, November 12^th, the Grand River Dam Authority Board of Directors will address the issue of habitable structures on Grand Lake. Although this complex issue was first brought into focus by the Shareholder Working Groups, related to the development of a Shoreline Management Plan for Grand Lake, there are many other voices to be heard with respect to a decision regarding these structures.

Grand Lakers United Enterprise was formed to represent moderate thinking Grand Lakers regarding the many and varied issues related to our lake. Our original focus was to offer alternatives to the very restrictive early drafts of the Shoreline Management Plan, but our mission statement also includes water quality and prudent lake management. As the representative of this group, I would urge the board to approve habitable structures with a well defined and different set of dock regulations than are currently in use.

Many of these structures have been in place on Grand Lake since the early forties and new ones have been added annually. Those constructed since the implementation of more formal dock permitting procedures have met those requirements. Whether new or old, the vast majority of them are permitted by the Authority. By definition, the only thing which differentiates a habitable structure from an enclosed fishing dock is the presence of an operational bath room. The only issue of concern not addressed in the current set of rules and regulations is the handling of gray water and raw sewage, which could be easily added. Furthermore, the board has been provided an environmental impact study, conducted by the University of Oklahoma, which concludes these structures offer no significant threat to the environment. But we understand there are other issues.

It’s common knowledge that the primary focus of the Authority has been the generation and sale of electricity. However, in recent years, economic development has been added to the mission statement and the importance of other elements of that same mission statement has been documented by the volume of litigation related to flood control. We would suggest this decision falls in the economic development arena. These structures use contractors of various sorts during the construction phase and, in the end, become electrical consumers, which indirectly benefits the Authority’s operation. So where or what is the real problem?

Our organization is not oblivious to the influence the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has on the day-to-day operational decisions rendered by this board, but it has to be noted that Grand Lake is one of a kind when it comes to FERC supervised lakes. The close proximity of adjacent property owners, shoreline development and concentration of docks will not likely be found on any other FERC controlled lake. To simply disallow these structures on an Oklahoma owned lake, managed by a board of directors appointed by the Governor of Oklahoma, the legislature, and key user groups because the Authority staff tells us, “FERC doesn’t like them,” seems somewhat un-Oklahoman.

Habitable Structures are not confined to Grand Lake. They can be found on lakes supervised by the Corps of Engineers (including significant development in many marinas on Lake Texoma) and even those under the jurisdiction of the Poster Boy for shoreline management plans, the Tennessee Valley Authority. During the SMP process, the TVA was repeatedly held up as an example of what an effective plan should look like by the Authority’s choice of consulting firm, Kleinschmidt & Associates. Below are some examples of both the shoreline homes on Lake Norris, a TVA lake in Kentucky, and some examples of habitable structures. I’m also including portions of a column authored by me, which appeared in the October 9, 2008, edition of The Chronicle of Grand Lake, containing some additional thoughts on this issue.

Again, I would urge the board to approve these structures. Hundreds of them exist throughout the Grand Lake area.  To force their removal would be an incredible economic penalty to those who have invested in them.  To grandfather those that exist, and prohibit future structures, would impose an unfair economic penalty on those who hope to enjoy Grand Lake in the future with similar privileges as those who came before them.  The rules and regulations addressing these structures could address everything from appearance to location; but to disallow them would certainly not be in the best interest of potential lake users or of an economy needing all the help it can get.

Sincerely Yours:

Rusty Fleming

Executive Director

Grand Lakers United Enterprise