Questions have been raised about continuing to send water through Buford Dam even as flooding was occurring downstream. But spokeswoman Lisa Coghlan says some water has to flow through in order to produce electricity. And, that curtailed releases have kept 37 billion gallons of flood water in Lanier.
And, no, she says, there is no danger of "overfilling" the lake. "We have 14 feet of flood storage capacity at Lake Lanier."
Last Saturday, the Corps implemented its Flood Control Operations at the dam... reducing the amount of water sent downstream.
The level of Lanier increased another .08 foot in the past 24 hours and was at 1068.03 early Friday... within three feet of full pool since before the start of the prolonged drought that ended earlier this year. Full pool is 1071 and the corps expects continued runoff from this week's heavy rains to send the level to 1068.5 this weekend.
Even more heavy rains are forecast through Saturday and a Flash Flood Watch has been issued for most of north Georgia. (See separate posting.)
(The Georgia News Network contributed to this story.)
(The Georgia News Network contributed to this story.)
Buford Dam
http://accesswdun.com/article/2009/9/223514