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 1,114 km of shoreline at normal level, a "full summer pool" of 1,071.0 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).

Contents

Geography

Reservoir

Drought

Recreation

External links

Geography

The lake is in Hall, Forsyth, Dawson, Gwinnett, and Lumpkin counties, by about 60%, 30%, 5%, 4%, and 1% 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

The lake's original and authorized purposes were to provide hydroelectricity and flood control. Since the lake's construction, metro Atlanta has been taking water from the lake to use for municipal drinking water, which was only authorized by Congress as an incidental use secondary to hydroelectricity.
Since the 90's, the Corps of Engineers, Florida, Georgia, and Alabama have all been fighting for use of the water held in Lake Lanier. Law mandates that when a river flows between two or more states, each state has a right to an equal share of the water. Additionally, other laws such as the Endangered Species Act require that water be available for threatened or endangered species that live in or around Chattahoochee River and Apalachicola Bay.

Drought

In June 2006 the USACE revealed that the new lake gauge at the dam, replaced in December 2005, was not properly calibrated, yielding a lake level reading nearly two feet (over half a meter) higher than the actual level. Because of this, nearly twenty-two billion U.S gallons (over eighty-two billion liters) of excess water was released 'over and above' the already planned excess releases to support both the successful spawning of gulf sturgeon in the Apalachicola River and to protect several species of mussels in Apalachicola Bay from excessive saltwater intrusion.
Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue said that 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

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 the marinas and the Lake Lanier Islands waterpark, which was used for the rowing and canoeing 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. AquaLand is located just north of Starboard Cove Marina near the town of Flowery Branch.
The band Lynyrd Skynyrd stayed at one of the lake's hotels during the recording of one of their live albums, which was being recorded at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta.
Lake Lanier was also the site of the 1997 Bilderberg conference

External links

★ Lake Lanier Information

★ at GNIS

★ Lake Lanier at USACE

★ Lake Lanier protection

★ Lake Lanier News

★ Lake Lanier - About North Georgia

★ Starboard Cove Marina