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Building a water supply reservoir at Glade Farm would be a poor public investment. The proposed damming of Flat Creek one mile from Lake Lanier would deprive Lake Lanier of much more water than would be available from the new reservoir.
Since Hall County has made a pact with the developers to keep the reservoir full, much of water in the reservoir will evaporate or seep into the ground than flow by Gainesville’s water intakes.
Building small reservoirs upstream of Lake Lanier robs its water and destroys natural streams and adjacent forests, farmland and other property. The three miles of Flat Creek that would be flooded by the dam is a beautiful natural area important to the protection of wildlife and of the lake’s water quality.
Though it is projected that Lake Lanier’s levels would only be lowered an inch or less by building the reservoir, it would set a poor precedent by encouraging other governments to build more unneeded reservoirs within Lanier’s watershed. The aggregate harm to Lanier as a resource for recreation, water supply and power generation could be significant.
We should concentrate our political energies within the next three years on demanding that Congress authorize water supply as a major purpose for Lake Lanier. If water were fairly allocated to all communities within the watershed, additional upstream storage space within this watershed would not be needed. Lanier’s storage capacity is adequate for the upstream water available to it.
The Corps of Engineers has not spilled water from the lake because of overfilling in the past 28 years and, considering recent weather patterns, will seldom need to. Building more reservoirs upstream of Lake Lanier would not increase the total water available to the public.
Unless Congress authorizes water supply as a lawful use for the lake, the plan for the water to be released from the Glades Reservoir into Lake Lanier and withdrawn from the Gainesville intakes could not be approved by the corps. If the reservoir were built without congressional authorization, using the impounded water in Glades Reservoir would be expensive for local users, who would have to absorb the high per-gallon cost of piping or on-site treatment.
And since upstream of Ga. 52 most of the land whose waters drain into Flat Creek is cleared, Flat Creek now is muddy after heavy rains. Silt visible where Flat Creek joins the Chattahoochee would fill the proposed reservoir, rendering it a swamp useless for water supply without expensive periodic dredging. It is much more efficient to take water directly from Lake Lanier.
Congress will not be able to ignore the people’s need for water and will have to authorize water supply as a legal use for the lake. When it does, the corps will allocate Lanier’s water according to each local government’s need and current water supply.
Thus, governments that build reservoirs depriving Lake Lanier of usable water would likely have its fair allocation from Lake Lanier reduced by the corps by the volume of their upstream withdrawals. And if we build the Glades Reservoir, Gainesville and Hall County will be stuck with higher water rates and no more usable water from the watershed area that feeds Lake Lanier.
Roger Nott
Gainesville
There’s no reason to oppose president’s school speech
What a sad place we have come to in the life of our country when so many people can get their nose so out of joint because our president wants to encourage students to excel and accept responsibility for their education. My parents never behaved this way when I was in school. I certainly didn’t when my children were in school and Presidents Reagan and Bush spoke to students.
How did we become so polarized? I would suggest it started with the advent of talk radio and loudmouth blowhards who are paid large sums of money to ignite fear and hatred.
What’s so amazing is the number of people who are duped by it. It must require a lot of hate to not want the president of the U.S. to encourage students to do well in school.
Johnny V. Crumley
Gainesville