For most people living in the metro area today Lake Lanier has always been part of the recreational landscape and its major drinking water source.
It was 60 years ago this summer, June 1956, when the Corps of Engineers closed the gates at the just-completed Buford Dam near Cumming beginning a two-year process to fill the lake and cover more than 39,000 acres of land to create a resource with 700 miles of shoreline in five counties.
This testament to human ingenuity and man’s ability to change his environment has turned what used to be woodland and farms into Georgia’s most popular inland water recreation venue with an average of 7.1 million visitors each year for boating, fishing, camping, hiking and swimming.
Originally undertaken to control flooding and improve navigation along the Chattahoochee/Flint/Apalachicola River Basin, Lake Lanier’s Buford Dam is home to three turbines capable of producing 127 megawatts of electricity – enough to power 57,000 homes. As the US Army Corps of Engineers Resource Manager Nick Baggett told me on a recent visit to Lanier’s Project Office, the dam “has produced more than $100 million in pollution-free energy since beginning operation in 1957.”
Lanier Project Manager Tim Rainey gave me a tour deep inside the hydro-dam to get a look at the role the half mile long dam and power house play in controlling lake levels, ensuring adequate water flow into the river system below and producing the aforementioned electrical power.
The 192-foot tall structure was built into solid granite, and while water flow is now controlled remotely from a facility at Carter’s Dam near Ellijay, Buford Dam operators continue to maintain a control room in the event it’s ever needed. Every day the dam must release a minimum of 600 cubic feet per second of lake water to make its way the 450 miles to the Gulf of Mexico, and perhaps twice that much when power is being generated. Even at minimum flow, Buford Dam is discharging almost 400 million gallons of water a day – an amount equal to 20,000 backyard pools.
Lake Lanier draws visitors from Atlanta and beyond to enjoy Georgia’s abundant sunshine, natural beauty and the recreational opportunities afforded us by this awesome man-made body of water.
With 53 federal, state and local parks, seven campgrounds, 80 public boat ramps and ten marinas, Lake Lanier is truly a Georgia jewel and a testament to the foresight of leaders two generations ago. I think it’s neat too that our lake is named to honor 19th century poet Sidney Lanier who extolled the attributes of the Blue Ridge Mountain foothills in his poem “Song of the Chattahoochee.”
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