GAINESVILLE - Folks who live and play around Lake Lanier are happy to see the lake so full, especially after years of drought. Ideally, however, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would like to see the level of Lanier sitting at 1,071 - or full summer pool.
As of Thursday morning, the water in Lanier measured 1,072.76 feet, and while that's not detrimental to the shoreline, the Corps still would like to see the level pulled down.
Corps spokesman Patrick Robbins with the Mobile office said the Corps can't increase releases from Lanier because the entire Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River (ACF) Basin is more than full.
"All the lakes are at or above summer pool right now, and again, the goal is to get them all to the summer pool level," said Robbins. "We balance the entire system, not just each individual project."
Robbins said because so much rain fell last week, there was no need to release water from Buford Dam at all on a couple of days.
"There are periods, like last week, where we weren't able to generate for two or three days because of conditions downstream."
So, is there the possibility that Lake Lanier and the other ACF water projects could get too full? Robbins said he doesn't think that will be an issue.
"If it looked like it was going to get well into the flood pool for an extended period of time that would cause some concern, but the forecast right now doesn't look like that's going to be a problem."
In fact, Robbins said he thinks it may be possible to bring Lanier down to full pool within the next few weeks.
"We're hoping to get it back down to summer pool level sometime around the first or second week of August," said Robbins.
Friday
October 25th, 2024
8:25AM
