Lake Lanier, the life source of water for close to 4 million metro Atlantans, is at its highest level in nearly two years, a mere cloudburst shy of full pool.
Heavy winter rains reversed a slide that saw the lake dwindle in December to its lowest levels since the drought from 2007 to 2009. But on Wednesday, the lake level stood at 1,069.45 feet above sea level, about one-half foot shy of its winter optimum level of 1,070 feet.
“We’ve been blessed in the whole basin so far this year,” said Pat Robbins, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages Lanier. “Let’s hope it continues.”
Low rainfall last year prompted the corps to reduce flows from many of its lakes along the Apalachicola/Chattahoochee/Flint River Basin, a stream network running from North Georgia south into Alabama and Florida.
Because of low lake levels in the south, water releases at Buford Dam at Lake Lanier were increased, despite the drought conditions. Lakes to the south are now at optimum levels, Robbins said.
The optimum level mark — or full pool — of Lake Lanier will increase by one foot, to 1,071 feet, in May in anticipation of the summer.
For now, natural resource observers are enjoying the conditions.
April Ingle, executive director with the Georgia River Network, said healthy flows have returned to most of the state’s streams.
Greater than average winter rains benefited the entire state, said Kathryn Zitsch, the natural resources division manager for the Atlanta Regional Commission. Lake Allatoona, a chief water supply for Cobb, Cherokee and Bartow counties, is already above full pool.
“This is all great news,” she said, “because it will help us as we go to the dryer summer months.”
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