The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is currently surveying and marking corner points of an existing flowage easement near Lake Lanier. The public may see USACE staff and survey contractors in the area known as easement “Segment W” for the next several weeks and into the first quarter of 2021.
Workers may be observed in and around Lanier Springs subdivision, Old Sycamore Road, Sycamore Road, River Rush subdivision, Lakeside Lane, and Suwanee Dam Road in Gwinnett, as well as Richland Creek, Barrington Estates, Links at Sugar Hill, and Laurel Park subdivisions in Sugar Hill.
As part of the survey process, corner markers will be installed where the easement lines make a turn, physically marking the easements.
USACE acquired easements downstream of the emergency spillway during construction of Buford Dam and Lake Lanier. According to the Corps of Engineers statement, “the easements provide the government with “the perpetual right, power and privilege to occasionally overflow, flood and submerge the land within the easement.”
The emergency spillway has never been needed and would only be used to evacuate water if the lake elevation ever exceeded 1,085 feet above mean sea level. This water would travel through the easement land and return to the Chattahoochee River via Richland Creek. Full summer elevation is 1,071 msl and the highest elevation on record of 1,077.15 occurred on April 14, 1964. Regardless of historical need, USACE must maintain proper identification of these easements for public safety.
Information: Lanier Project Management Office at 770-945-9531.
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