Corps says there's enough water in Lanier

The Army Corps of Engineers says its recent testing of Lake Lanier shows there’s enough water for everybody. Even as the drought grips the state tighter day-by-day, Corps officials say north Georgians and residents downstream shouldn’t worry excessively over Lanier’s dropping levels.

Patrick Taylor, the Corps' assistant operations program manager at Lanier, said this to GPB Tuesday.

"It’s not likely that we’ll even exit or go beyond the conservation pool".

The upper level, or ‘conservation pool’, provides water to nearby communities like Buford, Gainesville, and Cumming. The lower, or ‘inactive pool’, feeds metro Atlanta and downstream residents. Despite Lanier shrinking close to lower elevation levels, Taylor says all should be fine:

"We’re presently at 1,055’ elevation, and that’s another 20 feet—vertical feet of water. And sooner or later it’s going to rain, so we’ll start replenishing the storage".

Taylor does acknowledge predictions of a dry winter could be problematic to replenish the lake.

Atlanta business leaders urging water control

Metro Atlanta's Chamber of Commerce on Monday sent a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers asking them to let less water out of Lake Lanier. Chamber president Sam Williams says the Corps lets twice as much water out of Lanier as the region needs. He says if it continues at that rate, the city's growth will hit a brick wall.

"The real threat is you don't get things resolved with the Army Corps of Engineers, you don't get the litigation resolved and we don't have a plan in place. The limitation comes when you can't add any more houses, you can't add any more businesses because there isn't sufficient water".

On Friday, Governor Sonny Perdue sent a letter to the Corps giving them a Wednesday deadline to tell him how they will reduce water outflow.