Members of the Lake Lanier Association of home and business owners hope to convince the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Monday to give special consideration to the metro Atlanta lake.

Brig. Gen. Joseph Schroedel, commander of the Corps' South Atlantic Division, is scheduled to speak at the association's annual members' meeting Monday night. He spoke to the group last year.

"We want thousands of people to go to this thing," said Dean Allen, a lake homeowner and property investor. "At 1,040 [feet above sea level], our homes are going to be virtually unsellable."

Lanier sunk to elevation 1,050.8 on Dec. 26, a new record low for the federal reservoir that was built in the 1950s. Tuesday the lake was at 1057.6 feet, still more than 13 feet below its full summer pool. A ring of mud circles the lake and many private and public docks sit on land or in water too shallow for motor boats.

Allen said he drove around the lake over the weekend and saw 'for sale' signs in front of houses on every street.

"It's like an exodus," he said. "There are few lookers, fewer offers and zero sales."

Allen and other association members blame the Corps for draining the lake to send water downstream to Florida during the drought that has lasted more than two years. For months, the Corps maintained a flow of 3.2 billion gallons of water a day or more at the Florida line. Much of it came from Lanier, the primary water source for more than 3 million metro Atlantans.

The minimum flow at the Florida line was set years ago based on historical data and the amount of water needed to operate Atlanta-based Southern Co.'s coal-fired power plant on the Apalachicola River, just downstream from where the Chattahoochee meets the Flint River to form Lake Seminole.

Later, the minimum flow became tied to the survival of two freshwater mussel species, one listed as endangered and the other threatened on the federal list of endangered species. Late last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined the mussels could survive with less water, but the agency is still studying how much less water is needed.

Lanier is the first of five federal reservoirs on the Chattahoochee. Homeowners around West Point Lake near LaGrange are also dissatisfied with the Corps' dam operations, accusing the Corps — and the state of Georgia — of protecting Lanier at the expense of their lake.

Florida has made the same accusations, arguing the Corps favors Lanier and its multibillion-dollar recreational industry over their oyster industry and the health of the Apalachicola Bay, which needs large flushes of fresh water to maintain its ecosystem.

The Lake Lanier Association's annual meeting starts at 6 p.m. Monday at the Lakeview Center, 2057 Dawson Forest Road in Dawsonville. The meeting is open to nonmembers. For more information, contact the association at 770-503-7757 or go to www.lakelanier.org.