FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — With spring lake season here, the lakes in our area will get crowded. But the water level in Lake Lanier is much lower than it should be right now.
We thirst for sun-splashed days on the lake, when kayakers can glide across still water and boaters can cast for spotted bass in a cove. But the lake also thirsts this year.
“If you don’t have water coming in, and water is going out, well, hey, it’s gonna go down,” said Clay Sims, who walks his dog along Lake Lanier.
For the past five years, Lake Lanier has been full in early April. Now it’s more than five feet below full pool.
And yet, the Army Corps of Engineers is legally bound to release water from the dam, even in the driest of days.
“We’re releasing only the minimum amount right now, so we’re trying to hold as much water within Lake Lanier as we can,” Travis England with the Army Corps of Engineers told Channel 2’s Bryan Mims.
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This lake is needed to nourish the Chattahoochee River basin, all the way to the Florida panhandle.
Cities, fish, and wildlife depend on it.
“So, we hold 60% of that entire system’s water here in the lake,” England said.
The priority, he says, is the region, not lake residents and users.
Severe Weather Team 2 Chief Meteorologist Brad Nitz is forecasting widespread rain on Easter, meaning water will be coming in.
“It’s a little unusual for us to be this dry this time of year. March, April, that’s the peak of our severe weather season. We typically have periods of very heavy rain. We’ve just been in a dry weather pattern,” Nitz said.
“Would you prefer not to have so much sand and mud exposed?” Mims asked Sims
“Yeah, I would. It would be prettier that way,” Sims said.
As for boaters, be careful. The coves are especially shallow, meaning dead trees, shrubs, and other debris are close to the surface.
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