As posted in the Gainesville Times
By Ashley Fielding
afielding@gainesvilletimes.com

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue called on state legislators Wednesday to incentivize water conservation.

Perdue unveiled the Georgia Water Stewardship Act of 2010, which will require water-efficient plumbing fixtures in all newly constructed residential and commercial buildings and provide loan incentives for local governments building reservoirs and expanding existing reservoirs.

In a statement, Perdue called the legislation a “road map towards being better stewards of our limited natural resources.”

The bill will be introduced in both the state House and the Senate and will be sponsored by the Ross Tolleson, chairman of the Senate Natural Resources and the Environment Committee, and Lynn Smith, chairwoman of the same committee in the House.

The bill would become effective in July 2012.

From that point forward:

•Newly constructed residential and commercial buildings would be required to have water-efficient fixtures, and new industrial buildings would be required to use water-efficient cooling towers.
•Each unit in newly constructed apartment complexes would have to have its own meter so individual water consumption can be recorded.
•The state’s Environmental Protection Division would be required to set standards for leak detection for medium- and large-sized public water systems.
•Surface water withdrawals made by farmers would be monitored.
The bill also tackles the state’s existing buildings, instructing eight different state agencies to develop incentives in their loan and grant program for local governments and water providers to retrofit existing buildings with water-efficient plumbing fixtures or install drought-tolerant landscapes.

The bill could provide discounts on interest rates for loans acquired through the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority or could make local governments eligible to apply for Community Development Block Grants annually instead of every two years.

Smith said the proposal empowers local communities to create solutions, just as they did last year.

“We don’t want to have blanket laws that could be punitive,” Smith said. “As citizens of Georgia, we managed ourselves pretty well through the last drought.”

Both she and Tolleson said the proposal shows the state is doing what it can while the issue is resolved.

“The state has to be very proactive in moving ahead,” Tolleson said. “I think this will have a positive impact on negotiations … and it shows a good faith effort.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

as posted in the Gainesville Times

By Melissa Weinman
mweinman@gainesvilletimes.com

POSTED  Jan. 28, 2010 11:30 p.m.
The Hall County Board of Commissioners on Thursday approved changing the name of Holiday and Friendship roads to Lanier Islands Parkway.
“This probably should have been done 15 years ago when they built the new road,” Commissioner Bobby Banks said.
Nobody was at the meeting to speak in opposition to the name change.
Stacey Dickson, president of the Lake Lanier Convention and Visitors Bureau, spoke in favor of changing the name of “a very confusing” road.
There are three different road signs after the Interstate 985 exit that name the road as Friendship Road, Ga. 347 and Holiday Road.
“We support first and foremost, at the convenience of the visitor, that renaming the road to point to its most desirable attraction is a sensible and logical choice,” Dickson said.
Grier Todd, CEO of Lake Lanier Islands, said he thinks changing the name of the road will help the many other businesses on the route.
“Getting more traffic on that road helps all parties involved,” Todd said. “We deal every day with the confusion of trying to get our guests on the islands.”

Lake Lanier homes for sale

By Dan Chapman

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Scarred by the drought, and fearful of a permanent reduction in water levels, homeowners, boaters and marina operators on lakes Lanier and Allatoona are pushing Washington to raise the reservoirs.

For Lanier, the goal is 2 more feet of water year-round. For Allatoona, anywhere from 2 to 7 feet of additional wintertime water is the target.

A few feet here or there might seem insignificant to the untrained eye. But millions of additional gallons of water would keep the lakes running high and looking pretty.

Higher reservoirs, according to river boosters, would also insulate Atlanta and large swaths of south Georgia, Alabama and Florida from drought. And the lakes would still remain large enough, and their dams tall enough, to handle big rains and prevent flooding.

“Keeping as much water here as possible makes the entire Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint basin robust and usable for everybody’s purposes,” said Wilton Rooks, a vice president of the nonprofit Lake Lanier Association.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the reservoirs, began releasing water last week; which all but guarantees that Lanier and Allatoona will remain below hoped-for levels.

Lake Lanier hit an all-time low during the drought of 2007-08. Docks ended in mud. Boats hit tree stumps. The reservoirs appeared ring-around-the-bathtub dirty.

Both lakes recently crested their Corps-designated peaks. But the Corps, as it does every year, has been reducing levels to ready for winter rains.

Recent court rulings heighten fears that the Corps will be forced to permanently lower Lanier and Allatoona even further. In July, U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson said that Lanier is only authorized for flood control, navigation and power supply — not drinking water or recreation.

He gave Georgia three years to work out a water-sharing deal with Alabama and Florida, which also tap the Chattahoochee River, or else Atlanta would return to mid-1970s water withdrawal levels from Lanier. Roughly 3 million metro Atlantans depend on Lanier for drinking water.

Georgia officials are scrambling to find ways to keep Atlanta afloat in three years in case Magnuson’s decision stands. They’ve proposed construction of new reservoirs in Hall and Dawson counties. But reservoirs are expensive, lengthy projects. The yet-to-open Hickory Log Creek reservoir in Canton, for example, cost more than $100 million and has taken a decade to build.

“The cheapest, most environmentally-friendly water supply is to use the reservoirs already in place,” said Joe Cook, executive director of the Coosa River Basin Initiative. “It makes a whole lot more sense to increase the yield from Allatoona or Lanier, by increasing the amount of water stored there, than by building new reservoirs upstream.”

The Lake Lanier Association proposes keeping Lanier at 1073 feet above sea level year-round unless a drought requires more water be sent downstream.  Full pool is 1071 feet.

The Lake Allatoona Preservation Authority wants its lake to stay between 825 and 830 feet during the winter. The Corps is currently dropping Allatoona to 823 feet as it does each year.

Raising water levels at Lanier and Allatoona wouldn’t cost much. Lanier’s flood pool tops out at 1085 feet, Allatoona’s at 863 feet. Both have enough room to handle higher water levels and heavy rains without adding to the dams’ heights.

But Judge Magnuson prohibited any expansion of the reservoirs unless Congress first signs off. And downstream communities and businesses that rely on the rivers flowing from Lanier and Allatoona strongly oppose adding water to the reservoirs.

“Simply holding more water in Lake Lanier means less water flowing downstream into Alabama,” said Todd Stacy, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley’s spokesman. “Unless this proposal is part of a larger plan that includes measures to mitigate the disruption of flows, Alabama would ultimately be put at a disadvantage. That would be unacceptable.”

Raising reservoir levels faces opposition closer to home too.

“At 1073 feet, you’d see impacts at all of Lanier’s boat ramps and other Corps facilities along the shore,” said Lisa Coghlan, a Corps spokeswoman. “It can cause bank destabilization too when water stays up and the ground becomes saturated.”

But Brent Pearson, operations manager for a company that owns four marinas on Allatoona and another on Lanier, said most homeowners and businesses build docks and homes with high-water marks in mind.

“Everybody knows at Allatoona and Lanier that the Corps will flood the lake, so they don’t ever build a permanent structure anywhere close to the flood plain,” he said. “Going up two feet (at Lanier) is not a problem. Everybody’s got a buffer.”

The Corps recently received some stimulus money partly for an environmental study of Lanier which could tackle water-level questions. U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) is also pushing the Corps to revisit mandated lake levels for Lanier and Allatoona.

The Georgia General Assembly has unanimously supported raising reservoir levels in years past. And Gov. Sonny Perdue’s water “contingency” task force will likely recommend higher water levels.

“It is simply absurd that we can’t better manage Lake Lanier and take full advantage of the current abundant supply,” Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle wrote in an October 14 letter to the Corps.

From 11alive.com

Lake Lanier, Ga. — Lake Lanier finds itself between a dam and a wet place.

Usually this time of year, Lanier has plenty of room to catch and hold the run-off from the winter and spring rains.

But today the lake is above its full level. The Army Corps of Engineers may have to choose between flooding below Buford Dam, and flooding behind it.
Take everything you’ve known about Lake Lanier over the past several years and turn it upside down.
“We have to flip the switch,” said the Army Corps’ Chris Lovelady. “From drought management to flood management.”
Right now the lake level is about a foot and a half above its capacity.
Think of Lake Lanier as a bucket under a leaky roof. As long as there’s room in the bucket it can hold the water. But if the roof continues to leak — and the bucket is full — either you have to drain the bucket or you’re going to have quite a mess.
You’re looking at the water release equivalent of flooring the accelerator: all three turbines — wide open. The goal is to drop the lake another two and a half feet — to 1,070 — by December first…in time for what’s forecast to be heavier than normal winter and spring rains.
“It allows for future rain events that are possibly going to be significant” said the Army Corps’ Chris Lovelady. “We would expect that. It allows us to capture the flood waters.”
But if the predicted heavy rains come, the streams and rivers below Lake Lanier could flood again.
“If there’s flooding downstream” said Lovelady, “we don’t want to send this downstream to make the flooding worse.”
And if the Army Corps can’t release water from Lanier, the lake will back up.
The current water level at Lake Lanier is ten seventy two point fifty one.
The all time record is ten seventy seven.
The army corps warns that the expected heavy rains this winter could threaten that record.
“The lake’s up in the trees” Lovelady said. “The docks are in the trees. The parks are significantly affected. Beaches are totally underwater for the most part. Boat ramps are inaccessible.”
It’s a race between sending water downstream and the arrival of the rainy season…and there’s no way to get a bigger bucket.

The Corps of Engineering has started an Environmental Impact Statement for Lake Lanier.

From Access North Ga
Corps revises Lanier’s environmental impact statement

By Staff
MOBILE, Ala. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is revising the scope of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for its updated water control manuals for the the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) River Basin.

Corps officials said the revisions will account for a judge’s July 17 federal court ruling which determined Atlanta could not draw its drinking water from Lake Lanier and gave the state three years to work out a deal.

“With the exception of two relatively small relocation contracts for the
Cities of Gainesville and Buford, the Court determined that neither water
supply withdrawals from Lake Lanier nor releases for water supply from the
Chattahoochee River downstream, were authorized project purposes,” Mobile
District Chief of Public Affairs E. Patrick Robbins said. “In light of the significant new circumstances and information associated with the Judge’s ruling, the Corps will reopen the scoping process to gather stakeholder input regarding these new circumstances to be considered in its preparation of the Master Water Control Manual and EIS,” Robbins said.

Comments on the scope of the EIS should be submitted in writing to
Tetra Tech, Inc., 107 Saint Francis Street, Ste 1403, Mobile, AL 32206-9986.

Lake Lanier shore sweep

Even with the rains Saturday afternoon our annual shore sweep was pulled off without a hitch.  After working the lake shore for 4 hours we pulled in 5 large blocks of styrofoam and 10 lawn bags of trash.  Watch the blog for information on the next Lake Lanier shore sweep and bring the family for an afternoon of fun.

From Lakeside News

Rain didn’t dampen spirits for 21st annual Shore Sweep
By Pamela A. Keene

The pouring rain didn’t dampen the spirits of the nearly 600 volunteers who turned out for the 21st Annual Shore Sweep, held on September 21.

“The volunteers collected between 15 and 20 tons of garbage, Styrofoam and trash,” said Vicki Barnhorst, executive director of the Lake Lanier Association. “Even in the pouring rain, our volunteers are very dedicated.”

Dawson County got a head start on the annual clean-up. For several years, Lake Lanier Association Board Member Gordon Brand has organized a group of volunteers to begin work about two weeks before the actual date of Shore Sweep.

“This gives us a chance to involve people that may not be available on that Saturday but still want to help,” Brand said. “We have meetings ahead of time and organize our boat captains to pick up trash along the shoreline that has been collected leading up to Shore Sweep. It is really a way to be very thorough.”

At the planning meetings, boat captains receive stakes, rope and bags to begin collecting trash farther up into the creeks. “We organize along the Chestatee River and include portions of Hall and Forsyth from 14C to Yellow Creek,” he said. “It’s amazing how much debris is collected.”

This year, Deer Island was designated as a drop-off area for boats that worked Shore Sweep in advance. On Saturday, September 21, Tom Child and Marine Specialties Inc. came by barge to remove the trash and Styrofoam from the island.

“Managing this aspect of Shore Sweep involves a large number of people,” Brand said. “We started this several years ago and it is becoming very popular. When you spread out the amount of time and the number of people doing the work, you can get a lot more done.”

Sponsors include the Marine Trade Association of Metro Atlanta, Mincey Marble, Lake Lanier Islands, Starbucks Foundation, American Proteins, Bald Ridge Marina, Holiday Marina, Sunrise Cove Marina, Aqualand Marina, Lazy Days Marina, Norman’s Landing Restaurant, Gainesville Marina, Habersham Marina, and Port Royale Marina.

For more information, contact the Lake Lanier Association at 770-503-7757 or visit the website at www.lakelanier.org.