An Analysis of the Impact of Local Drought Conditions on Gross Sales in the Lake Hartwell Region

Proceedings of the 2011 Georgia Water Resources Conference, April 11, 12, and 13, 2011, Athens, Georgia.Lake Hartwell is a United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) impoundment of the Savannah River constructed between 1955 and 1963 as a part of a flood control, navigation and hydropower project on the border of South Carolina and Georgia. In addition to the original reasons for its creation, the lake is increasingly used today for tourism and recreational purposes, as well as issues related to water quality, water supply, and fish and wildlife management. As economic activity on and around the lake has intensified, the perceived importance of the lake as a driver of economic activity has correspondingly strengthened. Increased interest in Lake Hartwell has resulted in the creation of a number of stakeholder associations with the objective of protecting the economic interests of lake property owners and lake-oriented businesses. These stakeholders have increasingly brought their economic concerns into discussions of lake management. The multiyear regional droughts of 1999 to 2003 and 2006 to 2009 escalated stakeholder concerns about the economic impact of prolonged low lake levels on lake-oriented real estate and businesses. As drought conditions worsened throughout 2007 and 2008, stakeholders increasingly called for policy changes that would take greater account of the economic and tourism concerns of lake stakeholders. This research documents the unique relationship between consumer spending activity and Lake Hartwell lake levels for the six county region bordering the lake. While this research is portion of a much larger analysis documenting the economic impacts of drought conditions on the region, this piece of the project is informative for understanding the complexities of the relationship between general economic activity and lake levels. This analysis covers the six counties that border Lake Hartwell: Franklin, Hart, and Stephens counties in Georgia, and Anderson, Oconee, and Pickens counties in South Carolina.Sponsored by: Georgia Environmental Protection Division U.S. Geological Survey, Georgia Water Science Center U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia Water Resources Institute The University of Georgia, Water Resources FacultyThis book was published by Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2152. The views and statements advanced in this publication are solely those of the authors and do not represent official views or policies of The University of Georgia, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Georgia Water Research Institute as authorized by the Water Research Institutes Authorization Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-307) or the other conference sponsors