Lake Lanier Georgia - Lake Lanier Drought Marinas Parks

Gainesville City Council decided to use the drought as an opportunity to clean up Longwood Cove on Lake Lanier. Longwood Cove is close to Gainesville High School and is one of the more polluted areas of the lake.

Project engineer Paul Krippner said he plans to start work early next month:.

"We will hopefully go from about 50,000 yards to about 130,000 cubic yards of silt," Krippner said. "That means we'll be able to address a larger area and maybe go deeper.

Before last week, only Tidwell Park and Shoal Creek still have open boat ramps but theres now one more thanks to a great community effort ... Clarks Bridge Park.

Lake Lanier Rowing Club provided $1000, local businesses have donated $2800 in cash and $3000 in supplies. The boat ramp was left dry as water levels dropped and needed extra concrete to reach the new low water level.

Georgia World Congress Center this week was a great place to measure people's confidence in Lake Lanier. Do buyers at the 46th Annual Atlanta Boat Show still want to spend $100,000s on big boats?

The answer was ... maybe. The AJC reports that half-million dollar boats were still being purchased because "there's still plenty of room in the lake's main channel". About 40,000 visitors are expected with sales of around 700 boats.

Special report from Ken Sturdivant: The United States Corp of Engineers has been working with the private sector to improve ramps around Lake Lanier. Many ramps out of the water now are being repaired by the Corp.

As the water rises this spring, many ramps will reopen a lot sooner as a result of the work the Corp has done.

The inevitable happened yesterday ... Lake Lanier sank below its record low.

The lake hit 1,052.64 feet above sea level, beating the old record of 1,052.66 set in December 1981. That problem was solved by six months of monsoon-like rain during 1982 but its highly unlikely that we'll be so lucky this time. Currently the most optimistic predictions forsee the lake refilling in three year.

Desperate for some good news about Lake Lanier this year?

Some finally arrived this week with the announcement that a proposed $130 million hotel and water park has been approved for Mary Alice Park in Cumming.

The huge project would include a 450-room hotel, a 20-acre water park and a conference center with meeting space for 2,000.