Water level's down at Lake Lanier

From the AJC this week comes an article about Lake Lanier water levels continuing to drop at a record pace.  As water recide not only shoreline is being exposed.  Business hurting from the slow economy, Lanier home owners with investments that need sold, and properties once though to have deep water now on dry land are all feeling the pressure. 

If you have a prayer to two left over this evening incude one for rain in the Lake Lanier water shed basin. 

About the picture above.  Located just west of Holiday Marina off Blackberry Lane in Flowery Branch this cove may be dry for years to come without changes in release patterns from the Corp. or continued rain.  These are not inexpensive homes even in today’s market and water levels.  Having a dock permit is like having a golden ticket (Willy Wonka) for Lanier.  In most cases a dock permit adds 45,000 – 75,000 vs three years ago when the Corp was still passing out permits at will.  Consider that almost every permit for Lanier has been issued and only existing lake front properties with permits will have lake access via a boat dock.  With this in mind, every house on Lake Lanier just became a tear down for future homeowners seeking to build a new lake front mansion.  Many of my investors are seeking Lanier properties vs. traditional investments.

Call today and schedule a showing – 770-990-0743

For the entire article by Jeffry Scott and the AJC

Georgia won the latest round in court, but from the expanding muddy red banks of Lake Lanier it looks and feels a lot like metro Atlanta is still losing the water wars.

The lake is down 9 feet and dropping at a rate of about a foot a week, giving rise to memories of the great drought of 2007-2009 when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers drained 20 feet out of Lanier — and some say sucked the life out of the local economy.

The fear is the lake will continue to sink with a dry winter in the forecast and next summer could be as disastrous as 2008 when Lanier was down 15 feet and tourism was off by about 880,000 visitors and recreation revenue was down $90.2 million.

“They’ve been dropping it like crazy for the last 15 days and it’s got people scared,” said Don Hunt, 54, a boat mechanic working at Holiday Marina Tuesday afternoon. “I know Atlanta needs the water, but they can’t be letting it out that fast.”

The 38,000-acre lake about 40 miles north of downtown Atlanta is a recreational site that draws about 7.5 million visitors a year and metro area’s biggest source of drinking water at the heart of the tri-state water wars between Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. The lake, and the Chattahoochee River that feeds it, provide water for about 2.6 million Atlantans [more]

For the latest Lake Lanier news and events – www.LakeLanier-HomesForSale.com

For the latest Atlanta homes for sale - www.JeffBarnwellHomesForSale.com

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Working with buyers and sellers in Cumming, Gainesville, Dawsonville, Buford, Flowery Branch, Oakwood, Gwinnett, Forsyth, Hall, Dawson Counties. For more information about Lake Lanier, Buford Dam, water levels, exposed humps, dock permits, shoreline, Lake Lanier Islands Water park please give me a call.

Lake Lanier new home search

Would appear our neighbors in Alabama and Florida have requested the Corp of Engineers to provide more water from Lanier.  Already five feet down from full pool, 1071, Lanier homeowners are starting to see brown again on the shoreline.  For the latest Lake Lanier new homes for sale please visit www.Lake-LanierHomesForSale.com

As printed in the Gainesville Times  http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/6/article/54437/

POSTED: August 16, 2011 12:19 a.m.  
  
As Tropical Storm Gert appears headed out to sea, the Hall County area’s rain deficit gets larger and the water level at Lake Lanier keeps dropping.

Will there be any storm, tropical or gully washer that can bring relief to our parched earth?
Maybe.

The Atlantic basin is expected to see an above-normal hurricane season, which began June 1 and ends Nov. 30, and the season has yet to reach its peak.

“That could be a game changer,” said Lisa Coghlan, spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ office in Mobile, Ala.

For now, though, yards are getting browner and shorelines more exposed.

On Monday, Buford Dam had an unplanned water release starting at 10:55 a.m. to increase flows downstream.

The corps’ statement on the matter: “We had to increase generation this morning to the daily schedule to help send water downstream to ensure the 750 (cubic feet per second) cfs was met at Peachtree Creek.

“Over the weekend, Morgan Falls Dam (at the Cobb-Fulton County line) got too low and additional water was needed to ensure flows were met.”

Coghlan said more unscheduled releases could occur if the drought doesn’t loosen its grip.

Lake Lanier stood at 1,066 feet above sea level Monday, or 5 feet below the normal full pool of 1,071 feet.

It was threatening to drop into the 1,065-foot range, an area the lake hasn’t seen since the spring of 2009, when the 2007-2009 drought was still going strong.

While that drought was much more severe, draining Lanier to a historic low of 1,050.79 feet on Dec. 26, 2007, the mostly dry conditions we’re going through now aren’t something to dismiss.

Joanna Cloud, executive director of the Gainesville-based Lake Lanier Association, said she is concerned the lake is 5 feet under pool “heading into our historically dry season.”

“We know from experience, once Lake Lanier drops significantly, it is far less likely to refill the following year,” she said.

The U.S. Drought Monitor shows that most of South Georgia is in extreme drought. Portions of the state, including the Savannah area, have a worse label, “exceptional drought.”

Hall County is suffering from “abnormally dry conditions” and a sliver of East Hall has slipped into “moderate drought.”

With no substantial rainfall this week, more of Hall County could be in “moderate drought” when a new drought report is issued on Thursday.

Lack of rainfall, particularly in South Georgia, is driving the lower elevations at Lake Lanier, which is part of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River basin that flows into the Gulf of Mexico.

No rain is in the forecast until Thursday for the Hall County area, according to the National Weather Service in Peachtree City.

A 20 percent chance for thunderstorms runs from Thursday through Sunday.

It’s great to see water back in Hideaway Bay Marina.  Having kept a boat in this marina a couple years ago I can vouch for the low water issues created with fluctuating lake levels.  Easily one of the most private marina’s on the lake it also offers easy access to Atlanta boaters with a quick ride up 985.  For those new to boating it’s hard to match the convenience of taking out on your boat, enjoying the family fun on Lake Lanier, stepping off and going home.  For the latest Lake Lanier homes for sale please click on the links provided.  For more information please call 770-990-0743 or email JeffBarnwell@remax.net

Hideaway Bay Marina (formerly Starboard Cove Marina) is a full service marina on Lake Lanier.    Its name reflects its unique location just off the main body of the lake, hidden away from irritating and damaging boat wakes.

Just off I-985, next to Flowery Branch.  It can be an adventure to find us the first time in our hidden cove, but one visit will show you why our customers appreciate our protected, beautiful location.  Come see us.

Sobering site for Hideaway Bay just last year.  With the extensive dredging Hideaway Bay should have water for years to come.

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

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 is back to full pool in record time.  The new levels are causing issues across the lake with Corps of Engineer holding back water releases to decrease damage downstream.  For more information on Lake Lanier water levels or buying and selling your Lanier dream home email JeffBarnwell@gmail.com

As written in the Gainesville Times

Corps: Rising Lanier has submerged some docks
Lisa Coghlan of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers talks about recent heavy rain’s effect on Lake Lanier.

By Jeff Gill
jgill@gainesvilletimes.com

On the heels of this week’s heavy rainfall, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday it has heard from many Lake Lanier residents whose docks and walkways now are under water.

“I’ve received numerous phone calls from residents this morning that their docks, and et cetera, have been impacted by the increased elevations in the lake,” said Lisa Coghlan, Mobile, Ala.-based spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Some property owners “can’t get access to their boat ramps,” she added.

Other potential problems around the shoreline include “bank erosion and instability of the bank,” Coghlan said.

Lanier was at 1,072.90 feet above sea level as of Thursday night, up more than a foot and a half from 1071.21 feet Tuesday. Full pool is 1,071 feet.

Lake Lanier Association officials, meanwhile, said they had heard no complaints or concerns from association members about the increased levels.

The corps has said it plans to steadily release water from Buford Dam so that Lanier reaches 1,070 feet above sea level by Dec. 1. The agency’s four-week lake level forecast reflects that trajectory.

“We will be generating as much as possible at Lanier without causing impacts downstream,” Coghlan said.

She noted that the outflow could reach 8,420 cubic feet per second — the outflow was 710 cfs Thursday — on Saturday and Sunday, dropping the elevation to 1,072.65 feet by Sunday.

Coghlan added that she expects the level beforehand to peak at 1073.16 feet.

She said the corps is counting on a week or more of dry weather, and a forecast by the National Weather Service in Peachtree City bears that out. Sunny skies are predicted through Monday.

During this week’s rainfall, which produced 4-plus inches in the Hall County area, the corps reduced releases to minimum flow to curtail potential flooding downstream.

The corps caught heavy criticism for that same reaction in late September, when historic rains devastated many areas in North Georgia, flooding neighborhoods and shutting down freeways.

Many people said they believed the corps should have halted all flows at Buford Dam.

Corps officials countered that the flow out of large dams is rarely halted completely because of adverse impacts on river environments.

“The corps will continue to monitor weather conditions and how they may affect the project,” Coghlan said, adding that the corps manages the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint basin, of which Lanier is a part, “as a systemwide approach.”

The lake level is actually is just a few inches shy of where some Lake Lanier advocates would like to see the body of water remain, creating an instant mega reservoir for North Georgia.

Val Perry, executive vice president of the Lake Lanier Association, once remarked, “How many people have been saying for several years that we’ve got to have more dams, more reservoirs? (A higher Lanier) would be the cheapest 25 to 30 billion gallon reservoir in the history of America.”

Jackie Joseph, the association’s president, said she believes many residents can adjust to the higher levels.

“Most of the docks are movable,” she said. “If (docks) are that close to being underwater, I think that would be a problem that was not perhaps addressed prior to putting the dock in.”

Joseph added, “We would have never proposed 1,073 as far as a full pool was concerned if we felt like, as an organization, that it would endanger any docks. We have had no negative comments … about that.”

What a difference a year makes for Lanier, which was dropping rapidly at this time last year because of a two-year drought.

In mid-October, months after the drought was declared over, spokesman E. Patrick Robbins announced that the corps had “gone from operating in a drought situation to our normal operations for flood control.”

“All indications are that the Southeast will be in for a wetter-than-normal to normal winter weather pattern, and it is important that the lakes in the system are prepared to handle the excess water,” he said.

Reheis says Georgia needs Lake Lanier options

By Jerry Gunn Staff  Access North Georgia

Reheis said Georgia stands to lose 250 million gallons a day if water is cut off from Lanier

LAKE LANIER ISLANDS – Former state Environmental Protection Division Director Harold Reheis told 1071 Coalition members Tuesday night at their annual meeting Georgia must have a contingency plan ready in case Lake Lanier is lost as a drinking water resource.

Reheis said Governor Sonny Perdue wants that task force plan in hand before the 2010 General Assembly convenes and it must contain viable options to last July’s federal court ruling that bars North Georgia from drawing water from the lake after July 2012.

“We could lose the water that’s needed for three million people in metro Atlanta and around Lake Lanier,” Reheis said.

Reheis said Georgia stands to lose 250 million gallons a day if water is cut off from Lanier and that’s what Congress and the courts need to understand.

“We may find that we can’t make up a gap of 250 million gallons a day in the remaining less than three years that we have,” Reheis said. “That’s important for the courts and Congress to understand especially if making up that gap is going to cost $3-billion to this region.”
“It would cost nothing to allow us to continue to use the water that we are using now out of Lake Lanier; that has to weigh I think in the equation that Congress and the court use in making the decision here.”

1071 LAKE STUDY

1071 Coalition President Alex Laidlaw said he personally knows the effect of Lake Lanier’s lake level on business.

During the Coalition’s annual meeting at Lake Lanier Islands, he said this year during the recession was better for his marinas with the lake rising than it was during the drought with the lake at a record low.

“We’re clearly going to be 10 percent better than we were in ’08 and ’07, Laidlaw said. “I think it really does go to lake levels and how much they impact our business.”