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How new water guidelines may affect Lake Lanier
BufordDam
An updated water manual, used by the Army Corps of Engineers to manage water in the river system that includes Lake Lanier, allows 242 million gallons per day in gross withdrawals from Lake Lanier and releases from Buford Dam to support downstream withdrawals of up to 379 million gallons per day. That's the amount for which the state asked.
Enough water to serve metro Atlanta and beyond can be pulled from Lake Lanier, according to an updated document governing the river basin straddling Georgia, Florida and Alabama. But “the downside of it is that water has to come out of Lake Lanier, which means the lake levels will take a hit,” Lake Lanier Association’s new president, Wilton Rooks, said in an interview last week. “And that’s acknowledged in the water control manual.