A bit of sarcasm: Why all this fuss about drought? The lake was low in 1981 and without any effort on anyone's part, it filled back up. Nobody had to do anything about it. If the lake came back, then it will come back again. It wasn't our fault the rain stopped.

But let's face it; we are in desperate shape. We are suffering from problems with no hope of reducing water use to equal water supply with normal rain. But this mess isn't our fault. It was the fault of those guys who didn't plan for prevention of reoccurrence after the 1981 drought ended. They should have realized the problem would be worse for us when the rain failed again, and they should have made plans accordingly.

Those in charge should have realized we would grow and there would be dry spells because we had no supply of our own. They didn't have the foresight to plan or do anything to keep us out of the problem of no water. It's their fault we don't have an adequate water supply.

They just sat on their hands after the lake filled up, satisfied they had water again. Problem solved! They had to know it would happen again down the road, but this wasn't their problem. Can you imagine they were this narrow in thought and were not concerned with the future of the city's life blood. Surely, they knew it would happen again with our limited water source and increased demands.

We would have been smarter than they were if it had been us? Yes, us am smarter than they was.

Lee Bowers
Gainesville

Leaders need to share blame on water crisis
In the article headlined "Cagle lays state's water woes at feet of corps" (Dec. 14), the lieutenant governor cites the prolonged drought and points the finger of blame at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the state's current water crisis.

Cagle needs to examine the causes of the crisis. To make the list complete, he would need to add the tremendous growth in the area, lack of new water-supply infrastructure and lack of leadership. We need to ensure that infrastructure investment keeps pace with growth.

There is a saying that when you point the finger of blame, there are three fingers and a thumb pointing at the accuser. What we really have is a leadership crisis with elected officials who for years have pushed for growth, but haven't made the hard decisions to ensure that we invest in infrastructure to support and sustain the growth.

Blaming the corps for the water crisis is like blaming HERO for the traffic mess in and around Atlanta. The politicians and elected officials need to quit playing the blame game and start coming up with some innovative and creative solutions. Talking and blaming will not solve this crisis.

Pat McConnon
Gainesville