Atlanta Water Shortage

There was an announcement today that the army corps of Engineers is going to increase the water flows out of Lake Lanier.

Representatives from Georgia, Florida and Alabama regularly get to together on a conference call with the Corps of Engineers to discuss water issues. Thursday’s call produced bad news for Georgia and Lake Lanier.

The Corps of Engineers denied metro Atlanta’s request to minimizewater releases from Lake Lanier for another month. It was good news for Florida and Alabama who opposed the corps’ decision last year to reduce releases from November through April 30.

With the summer months rapidly coming up and the lake still below “normal” levels, it seems a bit premature to start draining the lake just because the past 6 months have had abnormally high water levels.

Read more commentary here.

Not much to report, just thought I drop in a quick picture of Lake Lanier’s water level over the last 60 days.

Straight from an AJC article, it talks about the big picture for Lake Lanier. Weeds and shrubs have invaded the shore and boat ramps end way before they reach the water and the impact reaches out beyond just the lake.

The relentless drought that first crept into metro Atlanta more than two and a half years ago has many victims, from landscapers to fishing guides. None show more visible scars than Lanier.

Last year, the lake’s red clay-ringed shoreline made national news, along with dire warnings that the South’s capital city could run out of water. Lanier is out of the spotlight this year, but not much better off.

This last comment seems to echo many of the posters here, Lake Lanier seems very much out of the spotlight this year and receives very little attention.

The locally heavy rains in Atlanta have raised Lake Lanier’s water level from 1050 feet and 11.88 inches on Dec. 9th to 1051 feet and 6.24 inches today at 5:15 EST - a gain of almost 6.5 inches!

The heavy rainfall in the area has caused many of the local rivers to rise and the runoff has helped build Lake Lanier’s level. There is still a flood watch in effect for North and South Fulton as of 11:08am EST, though it looks like the heaviest rains are in the past.

As of today, November 25th at 2am EST, Lake Lanier is down to 1051.20 feet 4.68 inches from the record. I saw some guesses for Dec. 1st and Dec. 4th for the record low, it should be right around then barring any major rainfall.

On a personal note, I’ve taken over the blog and the posting from Mickey. His great work and excellent contribution to content left me a high bar to live up to. If anyone has any suggestions for the blog or is dying to write a guest post, send me an email at: Chad@AtlantaWaterShortage.com. Thanks in advance for all the regular contributors - I’ve read through many of the comments and there is some great feeback.

I’m not from Atlanta, but I definitely feel an attachment to the area as my wife grew up in Marietta - so I have some local ties. Looking forward to making many more posts!

Watercrunch has an interesting article about Lake Hartwell, a large lake near the Georgia-South Carolina border.  The lake is continuing to drop, now sitting at 639.58′, which is well below the previous record low of 642.4′ set way back in 1981.  Lake levels tend to be around 657′ in the winter.

There are even some countdowns underway, much like we had last year with Lanier.  By some reports, there are only 300 days worth of water left.  The lowest intake on the lake is at 620′, a level that could be reached by next fall.

They also included an interesting photo.  The original bridge crossing for the Seneca River, which has been underwater since the lake was filled in the 1950s, is now coming back out again.  See the picture below:

There were 25 straight dry days in a row, which caused Lake Lanier to drop by over 1.5 feet, but the last few days have brought some very nice rain totals to the area.  The 25 day stretch was the 21st longest dry period since 1878 — pretty impressive!

According to Ken Cook, here are some area totals from the storm:

• Athens…3.16″
• Atlanta….1.80″
• Cartersville…1.43″
• Columbus…3.03″
• Gainesville…1.64″
• Macon…1.44″
• Marietta…2.51″
• Peachtree-Dekalb…2.04″
• Peachreee City…1.96″
• Rome…1.85″
• Fulton Co. airport…1.94″

Despite a very active hurricane season, the Atlanta area didn’t see much after Fay left town.  However, the temperatures this September were far lower than last year, resulting in a loss of only about 1-1/2 feet, vs the three foot drop we saw in 2007.  The chart clearly shows how much Fay helped, though it certainly would look better if we had seen rain from another hurricane.

We continue to set calendar-day records for the lake level (”the lowest it’s ever been on October 1″, etc), but we’re still a few feet away from the all time low.  As of today, the lake is at 1054.07 ft, with the all-time low being 1050.81, set on December 23 last year.

Last October saw a drop of about 3-1/4 feet.  I don’t imagine we’ll get that kind of loss this month, but it’s almost certainly going to drop.  How far do you think it will get this month?

The big question everyone is asking: Did Fay “fix” the drought? In a word, no, but it helped.

With the rain essentially gone, the total at Buford Dam over the last few days is presumed to have been about five inches.  The USGS totals only show about 4 inches, but they seem to be having some problems with their system.  Hopefully they can get that fixed.

In terms of the lake, the water has risen nearly 17 inches, from a low of 1053.30′ on Sunday (and Monday) morning, up to a high around 1054.69′ right now.  That was the level back on August 7, so this storm bought us nearly three weeks.

However, this rainfall will benefit Lake Lanier for weeks to come.  The biggest problem facing the lake is the amount of water drained from the lake each day.  Recently, around a billion gallons per day was being released, but that was reduced by nearly 40% on Monday, and will likely be reduced for some time to come because of the excess water downstream.

Next up is Gustav. It’s expected to strengthen into a strong storm (possibly a Category 3 hurricane), but no one has any idea where it might make landfall.  Whether we see any rain from it or not is completely up in the air.  We’ll keep you posted as the storm gets closer.

The latest computer models are showing that Tropical Storm Fay could hit the Florida panhandle and travel north into Georgia during the middle of next week.

We’ve said for a while that what Lake Lanier needs is a tropical storm to dump a ton of rain onto it.  It’s a longshot, but this could be the one.  It’s certainly worth keeping an eye on.