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Updated 2/18/2007 6:33:51 PM
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Name:
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SeaRayMan
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Subject:
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Lake Lanier Woes!!
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Date:
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9/21/2007 3:47:11 PM
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Lake Lanier sinking to a 50-year low?
As level drops, Atlanta faces the fact that its main water supply is no longer a sure thing.
By STACY SHELTON
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/21/07
By the end of the year, Lake Sidney Lanier could fall to levels not seen since it was built in the 1950s, due mostly to the state's prolonged drought.
Sandy beaches were uncovered as Lake Lanier's water level sank to 1,064.93 feet in July. From the start of September until now alone, the lake lost 2 feet. With a dry, warm winter predicted, planners are worried about how low it will go.
In the best-case scenario, the lake — metro Atlanta's main water source — will fall another 9 feet, setting a new record low at 20 feet below its full level. At that point, every public boat ramp and dock, and nearly every private dock, will be high and dry.
In the worst case, the lake will drop another 20 feet, leaving just 4 feet of water storage and threatening the region's water supply. Whether metro Atlanta could continue drawing water out of the lake and the Chattahoochee River it feeds is anybody's guess right now.
Pat Stevens, chief environmental planner for the Atlanta Regional Commission, said losing Lanier as a water source would be to Atlanta what Katrina was to New Orleans.
"It would be on the scale of a disaster like New Orleans," she said.
The dire forecast came Thursday during a teleconference call between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which built and operates Lanier, and other federal and state agencies, industrial water users and environmental groups.
The reason for the expected drop is twofold: predictions of a dry, warm winter that would extend a drought now in its second year, and the Corps' obligation to send enough water to Florida to protect two rare and endangered freshwater mussel species.
Under the Endangered Species Act, the Corps says it is required to send 37,400 gallons of water per second via the Chattahoochee River and the Flint River across the Florida line, to the Apalachicola River.
Lately, that's been far more than Mother Nature can give and the shortfall is being made up largely by Lake Lanier, more than 300 miles upstream.
The species under protection are the Gulf sturgeon and two types of mussels, the purple bankclimbers and the fat threeridge.
The minimum amount of water they need was determined by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Florida representatives say it's still not enough to sustain the oyster industry and prevent an 80,000-acre wetland from drying up.
The Corps has been releasing more than 10 times the amount of water from Lanier it receives from streams flowing in.
The lake is already as low as it was in September 2000, during the state's last extended drought. It's dropped 2 feet just since the beginning of September.
Metro Atlanta's continued water woes beg the question of how the region can continue to grow the way it has. More reservoirs, which can take some of the load off Lanier, are almost certainly on the way.
But even with those, metro Atlanta will either have to find a new source of water or figure out better ways to conserve what's here.
Sally Bethea, executive director of the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, said when she was listening to the Corps' forecast, "What I was saying to myself is 'We can't have two million more people move in here. How is that going to work? ... Metro Atlanta is just not willing to put constraints on people's use of water."
On Thursday, the Corps sent out a warning for boaters to beware of obstacles such as sand bars, rocks, stumps and trees.
Jackie Joseph, president of the Lake Lanier Association, estimated one-fifth of the private docks around the lake have been extended as far as they can go to reach water, or are sitting in mud.
"It's going down so rapidly from week to week," she said. "It's not reached final, critical stage, but it certainly is a good way there."
For metro Atlanta and the state, boating hazards and dry docks are the least of the concerns. Far more dangerous is the threat to the region's water supply and the health of the lake and river.
As the lake gets lower, the Corps will be less able to send water downstream to make up for the meager rainfall, which so far this year is at about 24 inches, 14 inches below the norm.
Also, the millions of gallons of treated sewage discharged daily into Lanier and the Chattahoochee will have less fresh water to mix with, creating more pollution.
State Environmental Protection Division officials, who have been monitoring the lake level, were alarmed by the Corps' forecast. EPD Director Carol Couch called it "a sobering wake-up call."
Couch said the forecast for Lanier underscores the "absolute necessity for all water users in the area to be of the utmost conscience about water conservation and the need to abide by declared watering restrictions.
This comes down to assuring that there is going to be a sufficient amount of drinking water for people."
Couch said she is considering whether to call for stronger outdoor watering restrictions, but many local communities are not waiting.
Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority, which draws some of its water from the Chattahoochee, on Thursday called for a complete ban on outdoor water use.
The city of Atlanta will continue to only allow outdoor water use on Saturday or Sunday. Other metro Atlanta communities have a range of restrictions.
Metro Atlanta is actually in better shape than many other areas in the state.
Tim Cash, the EPD's assistant branch chief for the Chattahoochee and Flint River basins, said some water systems "are pretty close to failure in terms of available sources." Two drinking water reservoirs serving the city of Hogansville are nearly dry, while the city of Thomaston has only four weeks' water supply left. The cities of Clarkesville, Cornelia, Monticello, Jefferson, Ellijay and Baldwin are all dealing with low water supplies.
"Everybody needs to pray for rain," Cash said.
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