Lake Lanier

Lake Lanier (officially Lake Sidney Lanier) is a manmade lake in the northern portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. It was created by the completion of Buford Dam on the Chattahoochee River in 1956, and is also fed by the waters of the Chestatee River. The lake encompasses 38,000 acres or 153.8km² of water, and 692 miles or 1114km of shoreline at normal level, a "full summer pool" of 1071.0 feet or 326.4 meters AMSL. It was named for poet Sidney Lanier, and was built and is operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It is patrolled by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (GDNR).

Geography

The lake is in Hall, Forsyth, Dawson, and Gwinnett counties, by about 60%, 30%, 5%, and 5% respectively, filling the valley into numerous small arms and fingers. The former thalweg of the Chestatee and the Chattahoochee south of it form the county line between Hall and a tiny corner of Gwinnett to the east, and Dawson and Forsyth to the west.

One of the main purposes of the lake is flood control downstream of the lake, mainly protecting metro Atlanta. There have only been two major flooding events on that section since then, the most recent in 2004 after the remnants of two major hurricanes (Frances and Ivan) dropped huge amounts of rainfall across the area.

Reservoir

One of the main purposes of the lake is as a major reservoir to store drinking water for about three million (nearly 70%) of the metro area's residents. Much of this is taken from the river downstream of the lake. Much of Gwinnett's water is taken directly from the lake, after filtering out much of the treated wastewater which also goes into it.

Requested permits to take more water out of it and the river for the growing Atlanta area, and to dump more of its wastewater in have triggered lawsuits recently. Alabama, which borders the lower half of the Chattahoochee, and Florida, which takes all of that water into the Apalachicola River, have both sued Georgia over the matter starting in the early 1990s.

Drought

In June 2006 the USACE revealed that the new lake gauge at the dam, replaced in December 2005, was not properly calibrated, reading nearly two feet or over half a meter higher than the actual level. Because of this, over two billion gallons or nearly eight billion liters of water was released, in part to protect mussels in Apalachicola Bay dying from excessive saltwater intrusion.

Sonny Perdue, the governor of Georgia and in an election year, said the Corps had created a "manmade drought", because most of the state is already experiencing dry conditions. This came at a time when outdoor water-use restrictions were already being put in place by local governments, because of enormous water use on the many lawns which have replaced the forests in newer suburban areas. Mainly because of this incident at the lake, the state then declared a drought and enacted a ban on outdoor water use from 10AM to 4PM, in addition to the permanent weekly odd/even address system. Other local counties have imposed further restrictions or even total bans, based on each water system's conditions.

Recreation

As a secondary purpose, the lake is extremely popular with boaters, houseboats, jetskiers and others, particularly around the summer holidays. Over 7.5 million people per year visit the lake, including its marinas and the Lake Lanier Islands waterpark. It was used for the rowing events at the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Two resort hotels sit on the lake: Emerald Pointe and Pine Isle. Both were recently sold by CNL Hotels & Resorts, a hotel investment firm in Florida, to Georgia businessman Virgil Williams. Both assets sit on a ground lease from the Lake Lanier Islands Development Authority which in turn leases the land from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.

Many marinas are scattered all around the lake, with AquaLand Marina being one of the largest freshwater marinas in the world, located just north of Starboard Cove Marina near the town of Flowery Branch.

External links

• Lake Sidney Lanier at GNIS
• Lake Lanier at USACE
• Lake Lanier protection
• Lake Lanier - About North Georgia
• Starboard Cove Marina