Lake Lanier Georgia - Lake Lanier Drought Marinas Parks

Lake Lanier is a beautiful lake close to Atlanta, Georgia.

It's the biggest and most famous lake in Georgia with millions of visitors every year.

Come and take part in activities on Lake Lanier such as fishing, boating, camping, hiking, swimming, golf and water skiing.

You can also visit one of the lake's many marinas, parks, boat ramps and restaurants.

• When? October 29 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
• Where? Georgia Mountains Center, 301 Main Street, SW, Gainesville, GA 30501

• When? October 25 from Noon to 6 p.m.
  
• Where? Aqualand Marina, 6800 Lights Ferry Road, Flowery Branch

• What are the most popular restaurants and marinas on the lake?
• How long will it take the lake to recover from low water levels?

We aimed to answer all these questions and more via the 2nd Annual Lake Lanier Survey. You can click here to see the results from 2007.

Read on to find out the results...

Update: the alligator was caught this week.

There's a baby alligator still on the loose in Lake Lanier.

It was last seen under an old, unused dock on Flat Creek. The area is close to Old Federal Park and Sunrise Cove Marina.

The Corps of Engineers has stopped issuing permits for nighttime fishing because of the low lake levels. The explanation?

"That’s just to try to help keep boaters safe. Because at nighttime it’s much more difficult for you to see rocks and stumps and shoals that may be just underneath the water’s surface."

Fishermen dispute this, saying that those going out at night are the most experienced boaters who are unlikely to get into trouble.

Unfortunately, its that time of year again. Boat ramps are closing again on Lake Lanier.

We had a good winter with a good number of ramps reopened but the lake has been falling again during July and the situation isn't looking great.

Five people drowned in eight days on Lake Lanier during July:

• July 4th: Lung Mang (21) and Tha Thang (23) jumped in the lake to push their rented pontoon boat off a sandbar during a late-night rainstorm.
• July 4th: Aeriel Cotuc Chaudjay (17) drowned off Lanier Beach South. The teen apparently waded from shallow water into an area with a 15-foot drop-off.

Apparently the mussels aren't so endangered after all.

The Corps of Engineers was given approval by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to store more water and release less from Lake Lanier and other Chattahoochee River reservoirs. The change in releases has already been implemented.

Forsyth County will sue the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stop the YMCA’s lease of Bethel Park on Lake Lanier, for a YMCA camp.

The county commissioners want "to make sure that the park is kept available for all the residents and not just a few".

Unfortunately it looks like the drought is reintensifying again

Lake Lanier, already at 14.4 feet below full and setting daily record low levels for this time of the year. The sun alone is evaporating more than two-tenths of an inch per day.

Lazy Days Marina in Buford received a big boost recently when it was chosen to National Marina Day on August 9th.

Apparently they chose Lazy Days and Lake Lanier as an example of how businesses can "overcome adversity – such as the one caused by the drought. Lazy Days turned negatives into positives."

With gas prices for your car rising steeply, what can you expect for your boat?

Last summer gas prices on varied from $3.50 to around $4.20. This summer expect to pay between $4.40 and $5.

If those prices are more expensive than you pay on land, its with good reason. On the lake, sales are seasonal, plus marinas need to pay for dock hands and environmental insurance to protect against spills.

Its been a busy start to the year for the Lake Lanier Islands:

• They received a $15,000,000 loan from the Georgia government for the construction of a new 500,000 gallon-per-day wastewater treatment plant.