Rep. Clyde visits Chatuge to celebrate TVA ‘win-win’

Also at risk was the ability of residents to simply enjoy Lake Chatuge for its recreation and beauty, visitors notwithstanding, and the City of Hiawassee expressed major concerns about its water treatment capabilities drawing from a lake so close to its bottom.

Thousands of people from Towns, Clay and other nearby counties mobilized to push back on the plans, submitting official comments to TVA, joining up with the grassroots organization Save Lake Chatuge, and contacting state and federal representatives for relief.

One of those federal representatives, U.S. Congressman Andrew Clyde, has received outsized credit for working with TVA to reach a sensible compromise. The result? Drawdown estimates have shrunk to just two lake off-seasons.

Rep. Clyde visited Lake Chatuge last week to meet with local stakeholders to discuss their successful efforts to date, and while he continues to work behind the scenes to ensure the new timeline is both achieved and potentially revised even further, there is plenty to celebrate now.

As part of his Aug. 26 visit, Clyde toured three marinas – The Ridges, Lake Chatuge Marine and Boundary Waters – to hear directly from lake-based businesses on how the drawdown plans will impact their operations.

The message he delivered to those businesses and, indeed, the whole of Georgia’s 9th Congressional District was clear that Tuesday.

“We’ll be here with you, every step of the way, and we will not allow the economy of this area to be damaged because of what TVA is doing,” Clyde said. “That’s not the point; the point is to save the lake, which maintains the economic prosperity of this region, and we’re going to do that.”

Additionally, Clyde toured the dam itself and the Hiawassee Water Plant while detailing the fruitful conversations he has had with TVA to deliver the best possible outcome for constituents, informed by an understanding of what is at stake and his background as a veteran of the U.S. Naval Construction Battalions, better known as the Navy Seabees.

His efforts leading the charge, backed by thousands of area voices, have put TVA on a quicker course to revise its plans, with the primary timeline innovation being the introduction of 24/7 construction over two winter seasons that may or may not end up being consecutive.

“That’s a huge shift,” Clyde said, noting his conviction that TVA wanted what everyone wanted – a “win-win” for dam safety and protecting those who rely on the lake. “I think they took all of us seriously, but it took maybe just somebody that had a little more influence and pushed them a little harder.”

TVA remains in the process of selecting a finalized plan, and Clyde said his office will stay engaged throughout so that “we have an idea of which direction they’re going and that it makes sense to us, too.”

“You have to be willing to ask the hard questions once you have done the research so that you can decipher between what’s possible,” Clyde said. “The ‘art of the possible’ is what we’re shooting for here, and I think we’re doing a good job of getting to that.”

Construction will take place over several years once it begins, with the first drawdown to 10 feet below winter pool expected in either 2027 or 2028.

Local marinas are preparing now for the impending drawdowns, as their docks and slips will be sitting on dry lakebed with the water that low, but they are pleased that their businesses will not have to suffer the losses of jobs and customers that would have come with the initial plans.

Lake Chatuge Marine Owner Dwayne Phillips said Clyde was “the driving force behind stopping the lake from draining,” which, in his opinion as a native who knows well just how much tourism has benefited the area over time, would have devastated to the entire local economy.

Looking at the big picture of what was averted, Phillips said many businesses would have had no choice but to let go of employees – with some businesses closing for good – and a drawdown lasting five years would likely have taken five or six more for everything to rebound.

“People would go out of business,” Phillips said. “We may slowly start going back into business once the lake came back up, but it’d take a few years to build the clientele back, so it would have been disastrous to this area.”

Added Phillips, “You would not have hardly any restaurants that would make it. VRBOs, hotels, stuff like that would be severely impacted. So, (the revision) is huge. We appreciate all the SaveLakeChatuge.org people, and we can’t thank Andrew Clyde enough.”

Boundary Waters Resort & Marina Owner Kevin Clem is on the board of Save Lake Chatuge, and he, too, recognizes the amazing partnership that has come together to, well, save Lake Chatuge. On top of touring his facilities, Clem took Clyde to study the dam and spillway via boat.

“Congressman Clyde and his staff really worked hard to help push the timeline along with the TVA,” Clem said. “So, I think the community pressure we created was significant, but his office was critical in speeding up the TVA’s action to give us a better solution in a shorter timeframe.”

Moving forward, Clem, Save Lake Chatuge and others will be working with Clyde to make the new drawdown periods as brief as possible, ideally allowing the lake to start coming back up by November of each drawdown year to minimize impacts on the following recreational seasons.

“There is no reason to panic right now,” Clem said. “We feel this is a great solution. It’s a big win for the community to have these revised timelines, but rest assured that Save Lake Chatuge has remained engaged to make sure TVA follows through with what’s best for the community.”

Towns County Sole Commissioner Cliff Bradshaw and Hiawassee Mayor Jay Chastain Jr. were two local elected officials who attended a lunch with Clyde at The Ridges’ Oaks Lakeside Kitchen on Aug. 26. Both have advocated many hours on behalf of the lake and community.

“Andrew Clyde is phenomenal,” Bradshaw said. “He takes his job very serious, and he works. He was very prepared to deal with the TVA – he had his facts down. And he’s very accessible; I get in touch with him anytime I need to. He is definitely an elected official that does his job, and we’re very, very thankful to have him.”

Clyde ended his lake tour at the Hiawassee Water Treatment Plant, where he walked the whole facility and talked with Mayor Chastain and Plant Superintendent Andrew Sims about the challenges ahead in treating water for thousands of county residents during lake drawdowns.

The plant was not designed to treat the level of sediment-filled water that will result from the intake pumps having to draw from such a dramatically depleted lake, and the problem will only worsen each time it rains as additional clay and dirt rush into Chatuge.

Planning to address this issue is still in the preliminary stages, but before the spillway repair moves forward, the water plant will have to be specially outfitted with expensive equipment that Chastain said the city absolutely cannot afford on its own.

Thus far, TVA has been good to work with over multiple meetings, Chastain said, describing the public power company as “receptive” and “willing to help,” and he feels better about the eventual outcome with Rep. Clyde in Hiawassee’s corner.

And while the congressman did not promise anything he could not deliver on during his visit, Chastain noted Clyde did say he would do everything in his power to protect the city – and its many water users.

“I’m very, very appreciative of Andrew Clyde’s desire to make sure that the citizens of this area are taken care of, and especially his interest in the City of Hiawassee,” Chastain said.