GAINESVILLE – If Lake Lanier looks more pristine than you ever remember, you can probably credit two factors: a nearly-full lake level and the Lake Lanier Association.
When God provides the rainfall needed so the water’s edge almost kisses the edge of the forest floor, lake enthusiasts smile with delight. And when the Lake Lanier Association works to remove abandoned and partially sunken boats littering the shoreline, eyesores disappear.
With three decades of organized shore-sweep litter pickup campaigns under its belt the Association now also targets bigger shoreline clutter than Styrofoam cups, water-logged tree branches and wind-blown deck chairs.
They have spent the past two years removing abandoned and sunken boats that pose navigation, safety and environmental threats.
“The really, really good news…is that we have pretty much cleared the inventory of problematic items that we had on our radar in terms of boats,” LLA Executive Director Joanna Cloud said. “You know, vessels that had been out there…for ten-plus years.”
“We finally got funding from the state and then we went to the counties and asked for matching funds. And we got all of the really big things that had been sitting out there…eyesores, sunken vessels that we knew about. We got all of them out in 2017,” Cloud explained.
“Now we are shifting to Phase 2 (and) what are we doing to prevent this from happening as we go forward.”
Cloud said preventing abandonment is vital since it costs a lot of money to remove those neglected water craft. Prevention is now their focus: “One of the houseboats…cost us $15,000 to get it out.”
“It was very, very frustrating because the person that owned it died and there was no next-of-kin,” Cloud related.
“And the vessel was floating for some period of time and the (onboard) battery went dead and the bilge-pump quit working and the vessel then started taking water on, and we watched it sink before our eyes.”
“Literally, all of us collectively stood around and watched it (sink) because we didn’t have authorization to remove it. We had different government agencies and nobody really knew who was on point for this and there was a lot of finger-pointing…and ultimately what would have cost us maybe $2000 to resolve...turned into a $15,000 problem.”
“Once a houseboat is fully submerged the logistics of getting it out are greatly aggravated and complicated.”
Cloud said efforts are underway to recoup some of the costs associated with raising and removing the boats. She credited the Hall County Solicitor’s Office for actively pursuing legal avenues to recover much of the costs incurred by LLA.
In one case, Cloud said, “(They) have identified the owner and (they) are pushing forward with the Hall County Sheriff’s Office and actively looking for prosecution angles.”
Cloud said since boats in Georgia are only registered, not titled, it can be difficult to identify the current owner or owners and begin legal action. “But the ones that we can find…we are definitely getting support.”
In another program LLA is working to make the hazard markers scattered across Lanier’s 38,000-surface acres visible at night.
“I believe we are in our third year of that initiative and we have installed about 300 or so battery-powered, solar-operated lights atop existing hazard markers.”
“If you’ve ever been on Lake Lanier at night it’s very dark out there and it’s very hard to see hazard markers,” Cloud said.
“They come on at dusk and off at dawn and they blink ‘on’ for one second and ‘off’ for three seconds. It has been a tremendously, gratefully received project by the local community.”
Cloud said LLA is always looking for new members and support, and suggests that anyone interested in joining with them in their efforts to contact her through their website http://www/lakelanier.org
“We’re a 501(c)(3) non-profit advocacy group and we advocate for a clean, full and safe Lake Lanier.”
