Downpour halts Lake Lanier’s decline, for now

For the first time this year, Lake Lanier did not set the new daily low-water mark.

The difference was rain that started falling by the buckets across the region Tuesday night, raising the lake nearly half a foot.

Before Thursday, Lanier had been rewriting a 48-year history with record low levels every day starting Jan. 1. The federal reservoir is metro Atlanta’s primary source for water.

“We finally are not setting a new record,” said E. Patrick Robbins, spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the lake. “We’ll take what we can get.”

Lanier has suffered dramatically since metro Atlanta fell into the grip of an unprecedented drought starting in the spring of 2006. Earlier this week, the lake dropped to 20 feet below its full, summertime level. In fact, before the rain started Tuesday, the lake dropped to within 2 inches of its all-time lowest level, set on Dec. 26 of last year.

The rain, coupled with the corps’ decision to tamp down on the amount of water released into the Chattahoochee River has delayed, if not saved, the lake from setting a new record low. The corps had forecast Lanier would break the record low level by now. It’s current forecast shows the record could be broken in early January.

Most importantly, the 2.5 inches of rain that has fallen this week gave Lanier more than 4 billion gallons of water — enough to supply metro Atlanta for more than 10 days.