Lake Lanier U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Why are discharges up even though we get a substantial rain? Come on COE let's really manage the lake.

The COE will never worry about the people until the people stand up and say enough is enough

OK, I'm with you. But the real problem is how do we get our voices heard? I've tried unsuccessfully to contact COE about all of this. You cannot send an email to COE, it's impossible! I guess it will have to be phone calls(good Luck) or direct intervention. COE occasionally visits Coalition 1071 for updates, but I'm not a member. Comments please! We need to keep this on the top burner.

I drove down to destin last month and followed the route of the chattahoochee. All the lakes below lanier are over the banks. Why can't the COE manage Lanier propoerly. Why can't we get the lake full. It would be full if it was managed propoerly. We have to get our voices out there and continue to be the sqeaky wheel until we get results. The lanier association needs to step up the noise. We need to call Sonny Purdue and our representatives as well and give them a piece of our minds. This whole thing with Lanier and the COE is a bunch of horse @#$*. As stated above they don't care about us until we make them unconfortable.

Get this: Lake Lanier has not been full for over 4 years now. AND, what's really more remarkable is the fact that Lake Lanier has not reached full 8 out of the last 11 years! Wow! If I performed that bad at work, I'd have been thrown out the back door years ago! You can't blame that crapy record on drought either! Poor management! Poor management! Poor management!

The fact remains, you cannot contact COE via email. Try calling them, it won't happen. They are an entity amongst themselves. I will place a challenge out there, if anyone ever gets a response from the COE a case of Bud or whatever your pleasure is yours.

Well, since it's raining today the COE wouldn't want all that water to stay in the lake would they?

Bart, you don't qualify for the case! Kidding. Look at releases from the lake yesterday, they are up! Maybe today COE will lower them again due to recent rainfall. We'll see after midnight tonite? The bet is still on.

Interesting to see what happens over the next week with rains likely.

look at releases for the 15th. Highest (1556) it's been since Oct last year. This has got to stop! The bet is still on. I have been trying to contact COE on all fronts with NO success. Everyone needs to get on board with this! If anyone actually gets in touch with someone who can affect what is going on, let us all know. Frustrated.

The Corps answers to: NO ONE. The Corps is responsible to: NO ONE. The Corps is accountable to: NO ONE. The Corps is predictable by: NO ONE. The Corps can do what the Corps wants to do: absolutely. That said, however, The Lake Lanier Association is a great place to hear and be heard. They are the only group on the Lake that truely cares about clean water, a full lake, and full recreation uses. Anyone and everyone who cares for this lake should GET INVOLVED. There are political pressures on this lake like never before. 1 million Lake Lanier advocates could vote in and vote out just about any politician!

Up 3.5 inches with good rain AND huge discharges. WHY THE HUGE DISCHARGES? No big power needs. ACF system is soaked to the banks all the way to the Gulf. Atlanta had huge rains to flush their toilets. So why the huge discharges? Must be that trusty manual again with the chart that says: on September 16th let out 1500 cfs, with absolutely no regards to any other factors. Let me run this system for a year. I'll have Lanier full, and I'll save enough water to fill Lake Seminole!

We'll they haven't lowered discharges much! We'll see what happens tomorrow. I betcha those clams and sturgeon are drowning down there!

Great news! The Corps has announced that their 4 week prediction that the Lake will drop 18 inches. 18 inches? in 4 weeks!? My goodness! What are they doing with all the water? Wow!

My gut is that they are primarily generating power. Why? Is the Corps contracturally obligated? Why would we waste Lake Lanier when power can be generated much cheaper by other means?

Does the Corps make a profit from this power generation? Is the power being sold locally, or throughout the south east? Its obvious that we don't have any high demands for power locally.

A good look into the power contracts between the Corps and the power companies might shed some light on the poor water management methods used by the Corps.

Any water released from Lanier, without a very good reason, hurts us all.

I have heard that power production from Buford Dam is controlled by antiquated contracts. It has only 80 MW capacity which is tiny by modern standards. They could probably stop all power production tomorrow will little impact on sytem capacity or cost. Power from that dam should be low priority.

Maybe the site of a few hundred P. O. 'ed citizens marching across the dam would get media attention and political notice. However, it will not influence the COE, as they are probably brain dead anyway

Very Interesting. I've always thought that any water discharges purely for hydro power production was bad management of Lanier. Definitly worth looking into. Probably take a Freedom of Info Act to get the contracts.

I've also heard that the Atlanta Regional Commission "tells" the Corps how much water they need for the next week. A good look into the failed Atlanta sewer systems and the related flushing requests from ARC would also help dial in why the Corps releases such big volumne. Atlanta doesn't need any failed EPA (federal) reports on the 'hooch.

I would be happy to try and mobilize my friends if we want to get controlled protest. Feel free to call me on my cell at (770) 519-0367

steve

OK, according to the COE data we had 1.6" of rain at the dam during the period 9/20 and 9/21? The lake has risen almost 1' in that period. Discharges are now low and power generation low, but not as low as it should be. Folks we are a flood condition! Could it be that the gauges are acting up again? We have had more than 1.6" of rain! Hell some places have had 12" or more. Something is not adding up.

Trust BUT Verify! I watch the USGS website which shows rainfall, and Lake Lanier elevations, all on graphs. These are updated every 2 hours. Then I cross check against USACE discharges (only available once a day). http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ga/n...o=02334400

We are up 33.72 inches as of 7:15 pm today, since Tues 9/15, according to USGS.

Rainfall shows over 3.5 inches today. And pver 6.5 inches since Tues 9/15.

The real point Lakeman is not in the stats. You can look at whatever site you want to(and I do too!) Unneeded discharges during a flood period are all unneccessary. Who are they generating for? Themselves! To keep the lights on? Is not one of the reasons for the dam; flood control? You read the news as well as I do, this a flood situation! And does the rain only fall north of the dam? Hell the river inundated scores of homeowners to the south! Why does the river need any dischrgaes? Maybe the trout, I guess.

here it is a new year for the COE. The discharges are on the increase as we speak. is the Lake the only place in GA that gets rain. then the Corps sends it south?

Here it comes folks! Discharges from the dam more than doubled on the 20th. With the Lake at just over full, they can't stand it and begin to let it out.

IDIOTS, PURE, SIMPLE, IDIOTS!!!!!!

not only are discharges up, so is generation. Who are they generating for? Heard it was to power the dam. Lights, the big lake elevation sign, Coke machines, what? Maybe I'm missing something here. Why don't they buy the needed electricty from local companies? Total cost impact would be much less than ruining Lake business.

Gainesville Times reported the Corps is lowering to 1070 by Dec 1st. I think we can give the Corps alittle slack. Remember, the winter rains begin the refill in Dec/Jan. The Corps is giving themselves a little room here. 1 foot. OK. But we are watching!

Folks, keep looking at the COE's site to see what is going on. Look at discharge and generation. It's at least tripled in the past several days! Look at the Weather Channel, there is lots of rain falling in the Southern part of the state and Florida. Why increase discharges? Why generation? Contact LLA and 1071 Coalition right now and put some wood on the fire. email these people, write letters and try and call them. We need strong action by our advocates.

With Lanier full, there is a whole lot more water. With the rains we've been having, the discharges barely do anything to the level. Still hovering around 6 inches high, even with the big discharges. The Corps says 1070 by Dec. 1. Let 'em have fun until 1070. Then we'll crank up the noise!

As long as the government has anythimg to do with anything they can make x amount of money off of that they don't have to declare nothing will change.

Folks, does it look like the COE is holding water in the lake even after the recent rain? Check the discharge and generation and you will see the cut back. Remember they wanted to bring the level down to 1070 by 12/1? Are all our concerns being listened to? I don't think so, but their reactions look really good to me. Let's wait and see.

Well, I guess I was wrong. The COE is dropping level by a huge amount. They are trying really hard to get that level down to full winter pool of 1070 by 12/1. It might be a little bit later but they will do it, without additional rain.

the lake is going down about a .25in per day. The COE can't let out more than it's doing now. That 12/1 date is fast approaching for full winter pool. Why don't they just leave well enough alone, and stop at 1071, the number we all appreciate. It will take them over a month to reach 1070 at this rate, which doesn't take into account any inflow.

The COE just does not care anything about Georgia Residence what we should do is tell them to take there lake (That we paid for with taxes) and do like a spoiled little kid that does not get there way and take there ball and go home

Well, they stopped discharges Sat and Sun! A little inflow still happening so Lake went up a little. The one thing for sure is that the COE's goal of getting to full winter pool of 1070 by 12/1 is not going to happen. Maybe their listening, like Big Brother or something? Are they holding water? God forbid!

give them credit. They are controlling down stream flooding.

Just my simple opinion: Was it politics that made the Corps discharge the ridiculous amount of water out of this lake duing the drought? The Corps, as much as people want to criticize, is not stupid. They knew all too well they were letting way way way too much water out of the lake. Were they letting the water out so that Gwinnett could get their discharge pipe in the lake? Probably. Was it for Lake Lanier Islands to get their new sewage treatment facility up and running? Probably. Was it for Forsyth Co/City of Cumming to set their intakes lower? Maybe. Was it just to put the screw to all the great people who live on and enjoy the lake, to show them who's boss on Lake Lanier? Maybe just a bit. We ALL KNOW it had absolutely NOTHING to do with Mussels and Fish! What caused the record low lake levels? Contrary to popular belief, it wasn't the drought. It wasn't the Corps acting alone. It was our own government that told the Corps of Engineers what to do. Our government ordered the draw down of our lake, without telling us the real reason, costing the good hard working, tax paying people of this great area, a ton of money, and a ton of inconvenience. Not to mention a massive real estate value plunge. You can't blame it on the Corps, and you can't blame it on the drought. The massive discharges were man-made, and man ordered. Wouldn't it be nice to know who ordered the discharges? Thanks!

lakeman, just a comment. I agree with a lot of what you have said, however factual statements mean more than suppositions. I mean like who made these decisions? No one will ever know. We can all guess as to what the real reasons were, but the fact remains that the COE doesn't care a flip about property values, business owners on the lake, etc. Weather controls all!