"HK" wrote in message
. ..
wrote:
On Oct 15, 10:06 am, "Don White" wrote:
"HK" wrote in message
...
CNN had a feature on Lake Lanier this morning. Apparently water
levels are
way, way down, and if there isn't some serious protracted rain soon,
a goodly portion of Georgia will be facing drought.
Meanwhile, the video showed the shorelines of the lake line with dead
shellfish and fish, left behind as the water receded.
What's the impact on boating?
Good thing Waylon doesn't boat much. Shouldn't affect him.
Is Lanier a man made lake?
Looks like it is the result of a riverbed widened into a lake, but I
don't know. Not a place where I'd care to boat. It's a reservoir,
which means it also serves as the area's freshwater supply. Nothing
quite like letting people boat, crap and dump garbage in your
drinking water.
Boating on lake gets dangerous
By STEPHEN GURR
The Times
GAINESVILLE
If you're planning on boating on Lake Lanier during the day, keep your
eyes peeled.
If you're planning on boating at night, don't, officials say.
With the lake's level at more than 12 feet below full pool, a myriad of
boating hazards are cropping up, from sandbars and stumps to rock
formations and tree limbs.
Permanent hazard markers, in the words of officials, are "high and dry."
Since June 21, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has placed 105 new
temporary floating orange hazard markers on the lake, with more being
added every day. Officials expect the lake will fall another four or
five feet in the next three weeks.
"How many more (markers) we put out just depends on how low we go," said
Jonathan Davis, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' operations project
manager for Lake Lanier.
The topography of the man-made lake has a lot to do with all the new
hazards surfacing.
"If you look at the surrounding countryside in North Georgia, it's
mountainous, hilly terrain," Davis said. "And that's what it looked like
when the lake was impounded. That's why we're seeing all these new islands."
Those sandbars and reefs can wreak havoc on a hull or an outboard motor,
and may be encountered with little warning. The Corps only marks the
hazards as they are found.
Officials are marking the new hazards on global positioning maps for
future reference, should the lake get this low again. Hazards generally
are marked when they are four feet below the current lake level.
For now, the electronic depth finder is the boater's best friend.
"If you've got a depth finder, use it," said Tim Vickery, a ranger for
the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. "If not, go slow.
"At night, I wouldn't even go out."
------
Lake group calls for action
By DEBBIE GILBERT
The Times
GAINESVILLE
The Lake Lanier Association has issued a "call to action" to its
members, urging them to complain to Georgia's politicians about the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers' alleged mismanagement of the lake's water levels.
The lake advocacy group, in a letter sent to Lanier stakeholders, claims
the corps is currently releasing "two to 10 times as much water as flows
into Lanier," whereas in previous droughts "releases were kept to a
minimum."
Lake residents are being asked to contact Georgia's U.S. senators,
Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss, as well as Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue
and U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal of Gainesville.
"The purpose of this call to action is to get people to say basically,
'Hey, we've got a crisis here,'" said Jackie Joseph, president of the
lake association. "And we think this is going to take congressional
intervention. This is a federal reservoir, and the corps isn't supposed
to be making arbitrary decisions."
Joseph acknowledges that Georgia's record drought is the main reason the
lake's level is more than 12 feet below full pool and continues to drop
precipitously.
"But the minimum flows (released from Buford Dam) are based in part on
endangered species requirements downstream," she said. "The essence of
the problem is, how much water is really needed for that purpose? We
don't think the science is very well documented. I don't think any solid
studies have been done."
Lanier is part of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river system that
extends into Florida and Alabama. Lisa Coghlan, spokeswoman for the
corps' district office in Mobile, which manages Lanier, said the agency
is required to maintain a flow of 5,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) in
the Apalachicola on Florida's Gulf Coast, partly to support several
species of mussels and sturgeon.
"We also need to protect water quality downstream, and to provide water
for a commercial business, the Scholz power plant," she said.
The Herbert Scholz Generating Plant is a coal-fired facility owned by
Gulf Power, part of Southern Company. It's located below Woodruff Dam on
the Apalachicola River, 25 miles east of Marianna, Fla.
Coghlan said she did not know why this particular power plant receives
special consideration. "It's been that way for years and years," she said.
In September 2006, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service released an
assessment of the corps' interim operations plan for water releases from
Woodruff Dam into the Apalachicola River. The wildlife agency said that
"a minimum flow below the dam of 5,000 cfs during all times of the year"
is needed "for system operational reasons including protection of a
water intake at (Scholz) power plant; it is also important to the
conservation of imperiled species."
Lynn Erickson, spokeswoman for Gulf Power, said the company has filed
letters with the corps stating that 5,000 cfs is the minimum flow at
which the plant can operate.
"It's a pretty small plant, but it's in the most southeastern corner of
Southern Company's grid," she said. "It's needed for grid stability."
But while the Endangered Species Act may require the corps to maintain a
minimum flow for certain types of plants or animals, there is no federal
mandate regarding the needs of utility companies.
Coghlan emphasized that Lanier is not the sole source of water for the
Apalachicola; there are many tributaries and several dams that also feed
into that river.
"We manage the ACF basin as a system," she said. "We're doing what we've
always done. It's just more noticeable during a drought."
As for the lake association's complaint that the corps is releasing more
from Lanier than the lake is receiving, Coghlan said the reason for that
is obvious.
"In current drought conditions, there is no water coming into the lake,"
she said.
Joseph wants to know what happened with the comprehensive management
plan that the corps was supposed to develop for Lanier and the rest of
the ACF basin.
"Back in August 2006, when there was congressional hearing about the
lake (held at Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville), Senators
Isakson and Chambliss both said the corps needed to make a commitment to
rewriting its management plan for Lanier," she said. "But since then,
nothing has been done."
Coghlan said the corps is still working on a comprehensive water
management plan. "The drought will delay its completion because we'll
have to incorporate that into our computer modeling," she said.
In mid-September, talks broke down between Alabama and Georgia over a
water-sharing agreement for the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa river basin.
Lake Lanier is in the ACF basin, not the ACT. But the fate of both
systems has been tied up in courts since the early 1990s, and resolving
the issue with one basin is contingent on reaching an agreement for the
other.
On Sept. 28, Isakson and Chambliss sent a letter to Peter Geren,
Secretary of the Army, demanding that the corps immediately begin
updating its management plans for the two basins. The senators then met
with corps officials on Oct. 4.
"The corps has taken the position that they won't update the water
management plans as long as there's hope that the three states will
reach an agreement," Isakson told The Times on Tuesday.
"But after the tri-state talks broke down, we approached the corps and
said it's absolutely essential that we move forward with the water
control plans. It will take 18 to 24 months to rewrite the manuals, so
every day the corps delays means it will be that much longer before it's
implemented."
Isakson said the corps is basing its decisions on documents written 20
years ago. "We need real-time data and real-time information," he said.
He added that Congress, which votes on how much money gets appropriated
for the Army, ultimately has oversight of the corps.
Isakson also noted that it was Congress that passed the Endangered
Species Act. He said Georgia Environmental Protection Division director
Carol Couch is seeking a waiver of the federal species law in order to
reduce the flow in Apalachicola, allowing Georgia to retain more water
in its lakes.
"I'm in favor of animals as much as anybody," Isakson said. "But in an
extreme drought like this, we have to consider human needs as well."
On Tuesday, Rep. Deal also wrote to Secretary Geren, asking why the
Endangered Species Act's "administrative relief clause" for human
livelihood is not being used in this situation.
Joseph said the lake association's letter-writing campaign is not about
protecting Lanier's lucrative boating or real estate industries.
"I don't believe we should keep water in the lake just for recreational
purposes," she said. "But Georgia has a real water supply problem now.
And as the population grows, discharges (of treated wastewater) to the
lake will be increasing. We need sufficient water to dilute that effluent."
Chris Riley, spokesman for Deal, said the lake association's "call to
action" seems to be having an effect.
"We are receiving quite a few phone calls and letters from our
constituents on this issue," he said.
--------------------