By Rob Pavey A plan by the Army Corps of Engineers to retain more water in Lake Lanier north of Atlanta won't affect drought management tactics already in place for Thurmond Lake and other Savannah River reservoirs.

I have a place on Lake Thurmond in South Carolina, and I think the problem with lake levels is not at all what the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the news say it is. The real problem is not that people are using too much water, nor is it that we have too little rain.

The lake crises in Georgia and South Carolina could be avoided if the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would stop trying to please everybody with complicated water release rules. Lake Russell, for example, stays at the same level all the time.

There is one way to look at lake level arguments that would solve the whole problem of what the state owning the lake should and should not do about water releases.

As Atlanta withers and worries under an unprecedented drought and water shortage, Augusta appears to have escaped the harshest restrictions, at least for now.