July 20, 2006: LLA Golf Outing and Shore Sweep

LLA Golf Outing and Shore Sweep

Golf Tournament: The LLA’s 4th Annual Golf Outing will be held on Monday, July 31 at PineIsle Golf Course on Lake Lanier Islands.  Registration for this event begins at 10:00 a.m. Fees are $150 per player or $600 for a foursome: feesinclude gate and greens fees, cart rental, lunch and appreciation reception/awards.  Sponsorships are also available:

• Tournament Sponsor: $1,000 – includes 4 players, hole signage, banner, recognition at award ceremony
• Hole Sponsor: $400 includes hole signage and recognition at award ceremony

To register, please visit our web site at www.lakelanier.org

Shore Sweep

The LLA is in the process of planning the association’s 18th Annual Shore Sweep which will be held on Saturday, September 30.

If you are interested in helping plan this event, please email us at lakeinfo@lakelanier.org.  Volunteers are needed to work on the appreciation party, to work at the participating marinas and parks, and to sign up sponsors.

Sponsorships for Shore Sweep are:

• Creek Sponsor: $250:recognition in newsletter, web site and poster
• River Sponsor: $500: recognition in newsletter, web site and poster,name on back of event T-shirt
• Lake Sponsor: $1,000: recognition in newsletter, web site and poster,featured placement on back of event T-shirt, poster and all outreach materials.

For more information on either of these events or to volunteer to help the association, please call 770-503-7757 or email lakeinfo@lakelanier.org.

July 30, 2006: Public Meeting Reminder

Public Meeting Reminder

Important Meeting about Lake Lanier Management

Senators Saxby Chambliss & Johnny Isakson and Congressman Nathan Deal are hosting a town hall meeting to discuss the management of Lake Lanier and Georgia’s water resource needs on Tuesday, August 8 at 10:00 am at Riverside Military Academy’s Sandy Beaver Center, 2001 Riverside Drive Gainesville, GA 30501.

A representative from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ South Atlantic Division will be present.

Directions: from Atlanta via I-85: take I-85 north to I-985 and make a left on Hwy 129 at Exit 22. Follow Hwy 129 through downtown Gainesville and take the right fork on 129 after 129 and 60 split at the end of Green Street. Take second left after fork on to Riverside Drive and Riverside Academy is one mile ahead. From GA 400: take Hwy 369 into Gainesville and turn left on Hwy 129 at the Best Western Lanier Center; follow directions on Hwy 129 as above.

- August 8 at 10:00 AM – An opportunity to voice your concerns

September 11, 2006: EPD Meeting and Hearing on Revised Gwinnett Discharge Permit

Dear List Members,

The EPD has scheduled two important meetings;

At 7 p.m. on September 21, 2006, the EPD will hold a public meeting on the revised Gwinnett discharge permit.  This is the permit based on the parameters negotiated by the Lake Lanier Association after our victory in the GA Supreme Court during our litigation against the EPD and Gwinnett County.  The purpose of the meeting is for the EPD to present and receive comments on the draft permit, and this will be followed by a public hearing for the EPD to receive comments on the permit for the public record.

It is very important that as many people as possible attend this meeting to comment on this permit.  The Lake Lanier Association is committed to insisting that any future permitted discharges into Lake Lanier have the same parameters, or better, as this permit.

The meeting will be held at the Gwinnett County Justice and Administrative Center Auditorium at 75 Langley Drive, Lawrenceville, GA 30045.

EPD Meeting on Stream Buffer Variances

Rule 391-3-16- .01, “Water Supply Watersheds,” is being amended to clarify that local ordinances providing for the protection of required stream buffers may also contain provisions for a local buffer variance application and review process.

To provide the public an opportunity to comment upon and provide input into the proposed rule Amendment, three public hearings will be held at 6:00 p.m. at the following dates/locations:

September 21, 2006
Dalton Utilities
1200 V. D. Parrott, Jr. Parkway
Dalton, GA 30722

September 26, 2006
Dahlonega City Hall
465 Riley Road, Dahlonega, GA  30533

September 27, 2006
EPD Training Center
4244 International Parkway; Suite 116
Atlanta, GA  30354

At the public hearings anyone may present data, make a statement, comment or offer a viewpoint or argument either orally or in writing. Lengthy statements or statements of a considerable technical or economic nature, as well as previously recorded messages, must be submitted in writing for the official record.  Oral statements should be concise.

For both hearings, those unable to attend may submit written comments.  Comments on the Gwinnett permit should be received by the EPD by close of business on September 28, 2006, and on the stream buffer issue by close of business on October 6, 2006.  Written comments may be emailed to EPDComments@dnr.state.ga.us or sent via regular mail addressed to: Linda MacGregor, Chief, Watershed Protection Branch, 4220 International Parkway, Suite 101, Atlanta, Georgia, 30354.

For further information, contact the Watershed Protection Branch at 404/675-6236.

August 7, 2006: Public Meeting Reminder

Dear LLA Members,,

Please attend the public meeting tomorrow at Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville. The meeting will focus on the management of two river basins including the ACF/Lake Lanier.  The meeting has been organized by US Senators Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss and US. Representative Nathan Deal.

Testifying will be:

• Brig. Gen. Michael Walsh, commander of the USACE’s South Atlanta Division,
• Governor Sonny Perdue, Forsyth Co. Commission Chair, Jack Conway,
• Hall Co. Chamber of Commerce president, Kit Dunlap,
• Lake Lanier Association president, Jackie Joseph.

The format of this meeting has been changed from a public forum to a formal hearing. It is our understanding the public will have the opportunity to ask questions after the hearing.

- Tuesday 10 a.m. at Riverside Military Academy -

July 7, 2006: Meeting on Water Quantity Management, July 10 Town Hall

Meeting on Water Quantity Management, July 10 Town Hall

EPD is developing a Statewide Comprehensive Water Plan to be provided to the Georgia Water Council in January 2007. In conjunction with this planning process, the Georgia Water Council will present a draft policy recommendation on water quantity management, followed by an opportunity for the public to provide comments on the draft policy at a series of town hall meetings.

Although the LLA petitioned the EPD to hold a meeting in our area so our members would have the opportunity to attend, the closest meeting will be July 10, 2006

Southern Polytechnic State University
Burruss Auditorium (H203)
1100 South
Marietta Parkway
Marietta, Georgia 30060

The meeting will begin with an open house from 5:00 p.m to 6:00 p.m., followed by a presentation on the draft policy recommendation on water quantity management from 6:25 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., and concluding with a public comment period from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Georgia Public Broadcasting will tape the presentation on the draft policy recommendation in Marietta on July 10th.

Public comments on the draft policy recommendation can be sent to watercomments@fanning.uga.edu .

The University of Georgia’s Fanning Institute will compile comments received by e-mail before July 31st, along with the comments received at the town hall meetings.

For more information on the planning process and white papers, please visit http://www.gwf.org/gawater/waterplanindex.html or visit http://www.gadnr.org/gswp/Images/timeline_print.jpg for the timelineand tasks of the management plan.

Three of the LLA’s board members are representing the lake’s interests as members of the Chattahoochee Basin Advisory Council and the Metro Overlay Basin Advisory Council.

June 18, 2006: Lake Lanier Water Level Reading Error

Learn more about the water quantity issues facing Lake Lanier.

The LLA learned yesterday afternoon from the Corps that they had discovered on Friday, June 16 that the water level is actually lower (by 1.90 ft) than what was being reported: this was due to faulty readings from their water level monitoring equipment at the dam, caused by a callibration error which occurred during installation of the new monitoring equipment in early December 2005.

This error remained undetected from December 2005 until April 2006 as the lake level remained fairly constant. The low water observations reported directly to the Corps by the public and additionally by calls to the LLA led the Corps to perform traditional measurements when they discovered the problem.

The LLA will continue to work closely with the Corps to try to implement a ‘fill up’ strategy for the lake.

Following is the press release sent out by the Corps office in Mobile about the gauge error.

Mobile, Alabama Lake levels at Lake Sidney Lanier are actually lower than being reported due to a faulty gauge reading used to calculate inflows and outflows.  The lake level is being reported at 1067.62 when the actual level is 1065.72.

A calibration error led to additional releases totaling one half inch per day, or 650 cubic feet per second of outflow greater than was necessary over the past 52 days.This equates to an additional lowering of the lake by 1.9 feet during this 52 day period.

The lake level gauge is used in the process to determine inflow into the lake, said Robbins. With the error, we believed more water was entering the lake than was actually occurring. In the current drought conditions, we operate the system as a run of the river meaning whatever is entering the lake is released.

Since we were getting a faulty reading, we were passing more water than was necessary over the 52 day period.

The faulty gauge was off by four tenths of an inch per day, giving a reading that was higher than actual lake levels. Over the period of about a month, the cumulative affect of this error would equal nearly a foot.

We are now augmenting flows as necessary for water supply to metro Atlanta, water quality requirements throughout the basin and to protect endangered species in the Apalachicola River.  Hydropower needs are being met as part of the releases necessary to meet these other requirements, said Robbins. These augmented releases are necessary when basin inflows drop below 5,000 cubic feet per second at Jim Woodruff Dam.

The lake is now in operational zone 3, which means run of the river type operations will continue when flows warrant or augmented flows as necessary.

Lake levels are expected to continue to decline throughout the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River basin throughout the summer if drought conditions persist. During previous historic drought periods the lake has been significantly lower. In 1981, the lake level dropped to 1052.66, 13-feet lower than the current level and as recent as 2001 the lake level was at 1055.61, 10-feet lower than the current reading. Given current conditions, the Corps does not project the lake levels will reach these previous historic lows during the summer.

The lake levels anticipated this summer will have critical impacts on recreation and hydropower production as levels decline.The gauge at Lake Lanier has been recalibrated so future levels will provide accurate readings. Mobile District will update its water management web pages to reflect actual readings over the time period. That site can be reached at www.sam.usace.army.mil under the heading Water Management.

March 30, 2006: Proposed Addition of Lake Lanier to Federal Impaired Waters List

Georgia EPD proposing addition of Lake Lanier to federal impaired waters list

The Georgia EPD issued a press release yesterday proposing the placement of Lake Lanier on the federal ‘impaired” (303 (d)) waters’ list because of repeated violations of water pollution standards.

In three areas tested by the EPD between 2002 and 2003, excessive amounts of chlorophyll a were found in three out of five of the testing locations:  Browns Bridge, Lanier Bridge and Flowery Branch.  (Chlorophyll a shows an excess of phosphorous and nitrates in the water and can cause algae blooms). These excesses are based on standards developed in 2000 for Lake Lanier.

If Lake Lanier is placed on this list, the EPA and the EPD will have to actively seek the source of the increased pollutant levels in these areas and attempt to rectify them.  The LLA has previously offered results of its Adopt A Lake water sampling to the EPD as our program now has several years’ data. If Lanier is placed on the list, the EPD will also have to develop Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL’s) which would define how much of a particular pollutant is allowed.  This will have an impact on the quality of wastewater discharges from any future plants permitted by the EPD.  As you know,  the LLA had a four year legal battle with Gwinnett County over the quality of their proposed wastewater discharge as the parameters for the effluent quality were not stringent enough.

More information on this proposal is on the EPD’s web site at http://www.gaepd.org/Documents/305b.html.  The EPD is requesting comments from the public on this proposed action.  In the next few days, we will be sending out an email with talking points for our members to write letters to the EPD on this subject.