State official asks Corps of Engineers to reduce water releases from Lanier

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By Mike Morris

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The director of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division has asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reduce the amount of water released from Lake Lanier by more than 10 percent because of drought conditions and forecasts of below normal winter and spring rain.

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Georgia wants the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reduce the amount of water released from Lake Lanier because the lake's level has been dropping.

Vino Wong, vwong@ajc.com Georgia wants the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reduce the amount of water released from Lake Lanier because the lake's level has been dropping.

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According to the letter sent last week, the Corps currently releases enough water through Buford Dam to ensure a flow of not less than 750 cubic feet per second near the confluence of the Chattahoochee River and Peachtree Creek.

State EPD Director Allen Barnes asked in his letter that "beginning on the earliest possible date, and continuing through March 31, 2012," the Corps lower that target to 650 cubic feet per second, a reduction of about 13 percent.

The current level of Lanier, which provides a substantial part of metro Atlanta's drinking water, is 1,058.22 feet above sea level, or 12.78 feet below "full pool" of 1,071 feet.

The lake's lowest level of 1050.79 feet was recorded in December 2007.

"This request would not adversely affect areas downstream of Atlanta, including West Point Lake, Columbus, Lake Walter F. George, Lake Seminole, or the Apalachicola River," Barnes wrote in his Nov. 7 letter to the Corps.