Reservoir, lake levels drop as drought worsens

Reservoir and lake levels are down across the state as the drought in north Georgia continues to worsen.

It has now been 35 days since there was measurable rain in Georgia.

"If we don't take the steps we're taking now and further steps in the future to preserve the water supply coming out of Lake Lanier, metro Atlanta is going to be in the same place we were in 2007,” Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority director Glenn Page said.

Page said he’s very worried about Lake Lanier, which is already low and projected to get dangerously low without rainfall relief.

In Spalding County, it hasn’t rained in more than two months.

The city of Griffin provides water to more than 100,000 people across four south Metro counties.  According to Brent Keller, the city’s public works director, their two reservoirs are fine for now, but if the drought persists through the winter into spring, they’ll have to make some tough water management choices that could include even more restrictions and higher rates.

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“If the reservoirs don’t recharge, we’ll have to make some management decisions going into next summer,” said Keller.

Keller said Griffin has two reservoirs. One has 220 days of water in it, the other has 300 days, so he believes they’re in good shape through the winter.

The dry conditions helped contribute to a stubborn brush fire that burned just west of Griffin Monday.

Firefighters said the blaze started when a hay baler caught a field of grass on fire, and the fire quickly spread to nearby woods.  Before long, the fire had consumed more than 50 acres and threatened homes and a private air field in its path.

“It’s pretty tough to contain the fire,” said Spalding County Battalion Chief Lee Slaughter.  “We’ve got Georgia Forestry out here.  They’ve got their tractors going, and we’ve got a brush truck out here working in conjunction with them.”

In Atlanta, crews are busy repairing water leaks across the city and with the new Drought Level 2 restrictions, more people are reporting problems. That’s making for a very busy Department of Watershed Management.

Lillian Govus, of the Department of Watershed Management, said, “We can’t keep up with the number of requests that we have in the system, which is why we’re bringing in contract help.”

The swing in temperature caused water main breaks over the weekend and two new ones on Monday.

“We do have a major backlog for service requests for water leaks -- for service line leaks, for meter leaks, valve leaks -- and so the emergency repairs take precedent,” said Govus.

In downtown Atlanta off Walton Street, a major leak could be seen through the hole of a manhole cover. A tipster said it has been gushing for nearly three months.  With the area in a Level 2 Drought, awareness is up and calls to 311 are pouring in, but neighbors says the reality remains the same.

“The infrastructure in Atlanta and everywhere else in the country is getting old and it’s breaking,” Rick Saylor said.

Contract workers are combined with nine full-time crews and together they are working around-the-clock tackling problems as they spring up.

Cox Media Group