CummingHome

Here we are ten days before the month of May in 2008 and Lake Lanier is still 13 feet below its full pool level.  Lake Lanier residents and recreation dependent businesses are paying the price.  Recreation activity is limited, property values continue to plummet, and business revenues, profits and employment are in decline.  Lake Lanier, and those whose livelihood and quality of life rely on it, are suffering huge negative consequences from low lake levels.

Downstream there is an abundance of water in the rivers and reservoirs.  West Point Lake and Lake George are two feet above their seasonal full pool levels, and the Apalachicola River has been flowing with plentiful water since January.

Georgia and the Corps of Engineers (Corps) have made and proposed Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) operation changes that have a small impact on Apalachicola River flows, but those proposals are always met with strong resistance from Florida, citing the supposed runaway growth and resultant water use increases in Metropolitan Atlanta (Atlanta) as causing huge negative consequences for Florida.

The claims of Atlanta water use causing a significant Florida problem are just ridiculous.  On average, Atlanta water consumption amounts to less than two percent of the Apalachicola River flow, hardly a significant difference.  Even in times of drought Atlanta water consumption only amounts to less than 10 percent of the Apalachicola river flow.

How did we get to the situation in which we now find ourselves?  The cause has been a drought and mismanagement of the ACF river system.  Nature has supplied too little water to enter Lanier, and the Corps has released too much water from Lanier.  We humans have little control over what nature provides, but we do have a lot of control over Lanier water releases.

The Corps, disproportionately responding to unfair downstream demands, and through its own mistakes, released too much water from Lake Lanier.  A Corps error in 2006 caused 22 Billion gallons of water (almost 2 feet of lake level) to be mistakenly released.  And, to satisfy excessive downstream demands, Lake Lanier was lowered from a level of 1068.5 in May of 2007 to a record low level of 1050.8 in December.

Meanwhile, Apalachicola River flows were being held unreasonably high for some threatened and endangered species without knowing how much flow is required for the survival of the species.  What happened to these species before the dams were built on the Chattahoochee River?  Without the dams the natural flows in 2007 would have dropped far below the minimum provided by the Corps’ control of the ACF River system, so what would real nature have done to the species?

Also, without science to back it up, Florida demands that large quantities of ACF water be released into the Gulf of Mexico for its oyster industry.

To the contrary, I think the facts (e.g. the current continuing record breaking low Lake Lanier levels) and resultant losses clearly demonstrate that more water should be stored in Lake Lanier during times of plentiful rain, to be released more slowly during other times.

Lanier is still almost 5 feet lower than ever before experienced at this time of the year.  The reason for Lanier remaining low, while downstream the ACF is experiencing abundance, is that the lake is a very large for the size of the watershed draining into it.  Downstream reservoirs have much less capacity and are fed by much larger watersheds.  So, when it rains there are times when there is an abundance of water downstream while Lanier struggles to add just a few feet to its level.

Lanier should be the storage of last resort, with as much water as possible saved to protect against the worst ACF droughts, but that is not the case.  Florida and Alabama’s demands for larger river flows carry more weight with the Corps than Atlanta and the Lanier community’s pleadings for wiser action.

The outlook for Lanier for the remainder of the year is terrible.  A continued period of low rainfall is forecast.  Georgia and the Corps have proposed changes in ACF management, which result in only miniscule improvements in Lake Lanier’s lowest level.  Chances are that Lanier will go no higher than 1060 (11 feet below the full summer pool level of 1071) this year before the summer season sets in and the lake is once again lowered.  Down to what level?  We don’t know.  Last year at this time Lake Lanier’s level was 1068.5 and it went down to 1050.8 in December.

The lake is now at 1057.5 and if we have the lake level drop this year as was experienced last year between April 20 and December (17.7 feet) we could expect the lake to be at a level of 1039.8 by the end of the year.  Hopefully the Corps will manage the ACF system this year to avoid that extreme, but how low will the lake really go?  It could certainly go much lower than the record low achieved last December.

Significant changes in the Corps’ management of the ACF are required to avoid even worse Lake Lanier recreation and Atlanta water supply consequences this year.  So far, there is no hint that significant changes are being considered.

I think the Lake Lanier community needs to be much more aggressive in advocating significant ACF operation changes to help Lake Lanier better satisfy legitimate and most important needs.