Drought Continues to Drop The Lake
At 1682 feet above sea level, we’re now at 8 feet below full pool and about 5 feet below where the lake was this time last year. The TVA is only releasing what they must, but they’re renowned for pulling the plug on the tub the day after Labor Day.
If we don’t get some decent rain soon, it’s going to be a short summer for the shallower coves. However, the pool is only about 2.5 feet below the TVA’s static guide (blue line) for this time of year, so there’s still hope for a late, wet summer for those of us not on deep water. The red line on the graph below represents this year’s lake levels, and the black line is for ‘05. 
Unless we get brushed by a rager Hurricane or two, we’re on the fast track downslope until early ‘07…
August 9th, 2006 in
Lake Levels | 2,091 views
Kip,
The Lake Lanier land owners have been complaining about their lake being down 6-7 feet. I have had no sympathy for them. They have a large number of people on their side: the City of Atlanta, the Governor, Gwinnett County, Fulton County and DeKalb County. They still are battling the states of Florida and Alabama. We will probably start seeing more of these people selling out and coming up to Blue Ridge to play.
I remember when Zell tried to get the TVA to delay the “Big Draw” on Blue Ridge about 8 years ago for economic reasons. The TVA totally ignored him. Congressman Nathan Deal then introduced a bill to transfer all TVA lakes to the Corps of Engineers. The TVA agreed to a delay in the draw down.
Then you have lakes like Burton, Seed, Raburn and Oconee operated by Ga. Power that only fluctuate about a foot a year. Maybe all of the GA lakes should be handed over to Ga. Power.
I didn’t know about the Nathan Deal bill. So I guess the TVA agreed to delay the draw down in return for a killed bill? Has Georgia Power ever taken over a TVA lake? Somehow I can’t see TVA giving up on that fight in my lifetime.
List of Major Georgia Reservoirs
My brother-in-law has a cabin on Lake Burton. The first time I went there, driving in, I thought the boathouses were the lakehouses!
It’s so much more attractive to have stationary, nice boathouses than these alum/steel docks-on-wheels that peel off dangerous materials to float around the lake.
First of all, this is a great site. Maybe you can help with several questions I have:
1) What is the rationale given by TVA for the timing of the rapid draw down immediately after Labor Day? Why not in late September or October?
2) Is there a Lake Blue Ridge Property Owner’s Association that is active? It seems like this group could undertake a shore cleanup effort annually when the lake is down. Maybe this goes on and I just have not heard of it.
3) In a number of places there remain a few of these houseboats in small coves that are “permanently” anchored and roped off from one side to the other. Does TVA care about this? These “squatters” tend to make their coves unattractive for the rest of us who would like to occassionally anchor in “their” cove, which appears to be surrounded by “public” land.
4) Is there any effort made by those who want to preserve the character of Lake Blue Ridge to limit the type of housing that can be built around the lake? That is to say, are you aware of any zoning requirement or other legislation that will prevent attached housing from being built and crowding the place? Seems like this would be wise for Fannin Co. to implement. Lake Chatuge is unfortunately beyond this point.
Thanks for your response.