The AJC has a frontpage article today about the court case that's starting in Jacksonville:

Senior U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson will consider the question: Is metro Atlanta entitled to rely on Lake Lanier as its primary source of drinking water?

Alabama and Florida, the states arguing with Georgia are using evidence from the 1950s to support their arguments:

• They believer Lake Lanier was formed for only three purposes: controlling floods, allowing barges to float downstream and generating power.
• Accommodating metro Atlanta’s needs with water stored at Lake Lanier violates the Water Supply Act of 1958. 

Needless to say much has changed since 1950:

• Lake Lanier has become a business engine for North Georgia. It makes little sense not to consider the economic impact of water usage.
• The Atlanta region has grown from under a million people in 1950 to over 5.5 million today.

Even if Georgia loses this round, its time for a fundamental reworking of how Lake Lanier's water is used. Fortunately the government stimulus money recently announced will fund a study doing just that.

I don't have the comparable figures to hand, but I suspect Little Hall Park is very close to being the most popular park on Lake Lanier. It gets 85,000 visitors every year.

It's going to be closed all next week.

The Corps of Engineers says Little Hall Park needs paving work, so it will be closed Monday, May 11 through Friday, May 15. The corps recommends that people use the ramp at Duckett Mill Park instead.

To get to Duckett Mill from Little Hall:

• Go back onto the Dawsonville Highway and head toward Gainesville
• 1.7 miles along the road, Duckett Mill Road will be on your right.
• Drive down Duckett Mill Road for 2 miles and you've arrived

We may be seeing the last few days of the Lake Lanier drought.

With heavy rains over the last two months, the Lake Lanier area has improved from moderate drought to simply being mild. As I write this, the rain is still coming down out the office window and it might not be long before we leave drought completely.

Let me repeat that as it would have sounded bizarre even in February this year:

it might not be long before we leave drought completely

State Climatologists say that in two to three weeks we may be able to reclassify the basin as being abnormally dry. Soil moisture and stream flows in the Lanier basin are both near normal for early May.

That is all great news. It comes with big caveats ... Lake Lanier is still in trouble:

• We're still about 5 to 6 feet below where we should be at this time of year.
• The Corps of Engineers has recently decided to increase outflows from the lake.
• The Corps still doesn't officially recognize the economic impact that low water levels have on our region.
• Businesses around the lake have taken a heavy hit from low lake levels and desperately need these high lake levels to continue.

UPDATE: Sonny has canceled. Event has been re-arranged for May 27th. Time to be announced.

Governor Sonny Perdue will be at Laurel Park on Wednesday May 6th at 2pm. He'll be doing the ribbon-cutting for the new mega boatramp that has been built there as part of his Go Fish Georgia program.

You can click here to see a selection of photos of the new four-lane ramp.

The ramp will be the site of the Super Bowl of fishing, the Forrest Wood Cup, which is coming to Lake Lanier next summer.

We mentioned last week that the Lake Lanier Association and 1071 Coalition were furious with the Corps of Engineers over the policy to start letting more water out of Lake Lanier from May 1st.

No-one I've spoken to around the lake so far understands or agrees with this decision. Even the AJC's cartoonist Cal Warlick gets in a dig at the Corps this week:

These are some great photos of the changing lake. These come from Frank & Jodi Orlando at www.lanierhomesales.com.

These photos show the drastic comeback Lake Lanier is making with it's water level. Only 8 of the 51 public boat ramps are closed. The before and after photos are from a public boat ramp down the street from us. The Army Corp. of Engineers measures the Lake level by elevation. The August 2008 level was an all time low 1053' and is the before photos. Current Lake elevation is 1063.86', full pool is 1071', fantastic strides in 8 months!

 8/2008

4/2009

8/2008

4/2009

Wednesday morning and the boaters are back!

Lake Lanier Homes For Sale, showings have picked up and once again this jewel in Forsyth County is a big attraction..

The Gainesville Times has choice quotes today from our two advocacy groups. In case you missed, the Corps of Engineers has decided to start releasing more water from Buford Dam:

Val Perry from the Lake Lanier Association

"It appalls me that even though we’re still 7 and a half feet down, they have decided to release more water and let it (the lake level) come down further. The summer months are approaching, and in the past, they always tried to get to full pool by June 1. This almost guarantees we’ll not even get close to it."

 

Grier Todd from the 1071 Coalition and the Lake Lanier Islands

"We were gaining a lot of ground in terms of lake level in the past couple of months. I know we had a lot of rain, but the reduced flow was a big part of those gains. I’m just afraid its going to stem the momentum we’ve had in getting the lake back up to full pool."

 

I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone around Lake Lanier to disagree with them.

BassFan.com has a long article about Tom Mann Jr., a Lake Lanier fisherman. He's doing really, really well on the pro circuit currently and he'd driven by one major goal:

"The announcement that the 2010 [Forrrest Wood] Cup would be held at Lanier lit a fire under Mann when it came last December. He knew his quickest route to qualification – which would mean a shot at $1 million on a body of water he knows like it's his own living room – was through this year's Series. 

Mann expects Lanier to be in great shape when the 2010 Cup finally arrives. "Last December it was down 20 feet (due to drought), and today as we speak it's less than 7 feet low. We've had a wet spring and it continues to rise on a daily basis, and the fishing is fantastic. It's the best spotted bass fishery in the world for both quality and quantity. The first part of August isn't prime time anywhere in the Southeast, but you can probably catch more nice fish there than anywhere else (in the region) at that time of year." 

 

The Humane Society of Hall County is holding its 18th annual Pet Strut on Sunday. This fundraising event is a 5K run for and 1-mile fun walk. Dogs are allowed to take part in the walk.

• Location: Presentation Point at Lake Lanier Islands
• Time: Registration starts at noon Sunday, dog show at 12:30 p.m., 1-mile fun walk at 2 p.m. and 5K race at 2:30 p.m.
• Price: $25 to enter either race, $5 to enter dog show, $8 per vehicle to access Lake Lanier Islands. Vehicle fee is waived for race participants

Via NorthFulton.com comes confirmation of something we mentioned in this month's newsletter:

Forsyth County's Board of Commissioners voted to give $10,000 to both the Lake Lanier Association and the 1071 Coalition for their work to make the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers keep Lake Lanier at full pool.

Both groups are getting a one-time grant of $10,000. Both groups requested help to support the effort to raise lake levels.

Whereas the Lake Lanier Association has been around since 1966, the 1071 Coaliton only formed last year and plans to disband once the Corps has completed its new management plan for Lake Lanier.

The Coalition has contracted for a $170,000 study to look at the economic impact that happens when the lake falls below 1060. Currently the Corps does not consider economic effects when it manages the lake.