Lake Lanier Georgia - Lake Lanier Drought Marinas Parks

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.

The Lake Lanier Association is currently preparing to sue the Corps of Engineers.

They're asking for financial help in their lawsuit and have prepared a Memorandum of Law supporting their case. It contains a huge amount of interesting and very worrying information about the effect of Lake Lanier's crisis on local business.

There was an important meeting about the future of Lake Lanier in downtown Gainesville last week.

Representatives from the Corps of Engineers, US Fish and Wildlife and other involved organizations attended and provided a lot of useful information. We're grateful to Ken Sturdivant for this report. Particularly interesting details from the meeting have been highlighted.

One by one, Lake Lanier's boat ramps have gone dry and finally we're left with only one: Tidwell Park.

The park is close is in the south-west section of the lake close to Cumming. To get to Tidwell Park, use Exit 16 on Highway 400 and drive along Pilgrim Mill Road to the end.

By rights this should have been a triumphant year for those of us who live and work around Lake Lanier.

The lake entered its 50th year as the focus of a $5.5 billion dollar industry and we got ready to celebrate its importance to North Georgia. Throughout the summer good news kept on coming: