The level early Thursday was 1054.53. Full pool is 1071. The record, 1050.81, was sent Dec. 21 last year.
Meanwhile, because the lake is 5 feet lower than it was this time last year, one group's annual cleanup of the lake is taking on new urgency.
The Lake Lanier Association will hold its 20th Annual Shore Sweep on Sept. 27 at 13 locations around the lake.
The event will take place from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m., and volunteers may pick up trash bags to collect trash from the shoreline at one of the designated sites on the lake. In Hall County, the Shore Sweep sites will be Aqualand Marina, Clarks Bridge Park, Gainesville Marina, Holiday Marina, Lake Lanier Islands and Sunrise Cove Marina.
In return for a full bag of trash, the volunteers will receive either a free T-shirt or, for scouts, a Shore Sweep 2008 patch, and an invitation to the Shore Sweep volunteer appreciation party, which will take place afterwards at Lanier Park on Buford Dam Road.
Large items may be taken by boat to a dumpster at the Old Highway 53 road bed, which is the first cove on the right north of Lanier Bridge. A volunteer will be at the site, and a staff member from Martin Docks will help offload large items. Large items will also be collected by a barge from Marine Specialties, who will also accept items on the water in the vicinity of the Old 53 road bed cove. Organizers note that most boat ramps are closed and that large items cannot be left in the water at the other sites for pick up later.
The Lake Lanier Association is holding special contests for volunteers at the appreciation party and is asking them to bring their T-shirts from past years to the party, where organizers will be awarding prizes for those with T-shirt from the earliest year and to the person with the most consecutive year T-shirts.
The association is also gathering information to create a historical record of 20 years of Shore Sweep and asks volunteers to bring dated historic photographs of previous Shore Sweep activities that will be collected on site and used later as a display.
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On the Net. Lake Lanier Association. http://www.lakelanier.org
Portion of Lake Lanier as of 9-2-08
http://accesswdun.com/article/2008/9/213458