Four years ago, the group proposed increasing full pool to 1073, believing it might be the foundation for a practical solution to the tri-state water war, as well as a deeper, more drought-proof source for water.
Governor Nathan Deal last week initiated funding for additional reservoirs to serve North Georgia.
The state Board of Natural Resources voted Wednesday on proposed revisions to its rules concerning review of proposed interbasin transfers. (See separate story.)
"The impact of existing interbasin transfers from the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) River Basin, which includes Lake Lanier, is a net loss of about 47 million gallons of water a day," according to Joanna Cloud, Executive Director of the association. "That water flows to the Atlantic Ocean rather than to the Gulf of Mexico."
In January, 2007, the Lake Lanier Association proposed raising Lanier from its current level of 1071 to 1073. The Georgia Senate unanimously passed a resolution in February of that year asking Congress and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study the costs and effects of raising the level. The additional two feet of water storage would add approximately 26 billion gallons of water to Lanier, the principal current water source for North Georgia. That volume of additional water could exceed the amount that would be stored in all the proposed reservoirs combined, at a small fraction of the cost. The question is whether Georgia would legally be allowed to use it for water supply.
Reducing interbasin transfers from the Chattahoochee and raising the full pool level of Lake Lanier to 1073 might be the foundation for a practicable solution to Georgia's decades-old Water Wars dispute with its neighbors to the south, as well as a deeper, more drought-proof source for its water supply.
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http://accesswdun.com/article/2011/1/235667