Recent rainfall helps drought, but not enough for Lake Lanier.
Lake levels were 5.7 feet below normal as of Wednesday morning.
“We’re very fortunate that it has actually been rising lately, but we started in a deep hole.
We were 11 feet down and now we’re still 6 feet down, so while this rain has been good it hasn’t been enough,” explained Chattahoochee River Keeper, Jason Ulseth.
“When we get rain, only a small amount of land in just a couple counties drain into the lake.
Because of the low lake levels, a Level 2 Drought Response remains in effect for Cobb, Coweta, Dekalb, Douglas, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Habersham, Hall, Lumpkin, Paulding and White counties.
Even-numbered and unnumbered addresses may water on Wednesday and Saturday before 10 a.m. and after 4 p.m. Odd-numbered addresses may water Thursday and Sunday before 10 a.m. and after 4 p.m. For anyone traveling to Lake Lanier, the extra shoreline is clear, but debris beneath the surface may not be.
People diving underwater may have underwater hazards that were not there before,” explained U.S. Army Corps of Engineers natural resource manager Nick Baggett.
“You can damage your boat and more importantly it’s a hazard to your life.
It can throw people from the boat.” © 2017 Cox Media Group.

Georgia Drought Improves, But Lake Lanier Is Still Low.
At the beginning of the year, most of Georgia was in drought.
Now, less than a third of the state is drier than usual.
But there are still water use rules in place in metro Atlanta, even though the drought has improved dramatically.
“We are looking better,” Jac Capp, chief of the water branch of Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division, said.
But, “Lake Lanier, which is the primary source of drinking water for much of the metro Atlanta area — either from the lake directly, or from releases from the lake — the lake is still 6 1/2 feet below fill pool.” Until the lake level looks better and streams flowing into the lake are higher, restrictions will likely stick around, including on lawn watering, car washing, and ornamental fountains.
“We’re not short on water by any stretch of the imagination,” Capp said.
“We still feel like it makes sense to have some additional conservation measures in place, to insure that our water sources are protected and secure.”

View Larger After 18 inches of rain since March 1, restrictions on water use remain unchanged for Hall County and metro Atlanta.
Lake Lanier’s level this week reached more than 1,064 feet above sea level, within 7 feet of full — a good level for 2017, but a record low for the past five years.
“Releases from Lake Lanier will continue to be just for water-quality and water-supply requirements at this time,” Hunter said in an announcement.
Weinstein said current conditions mean the metro Atlanta area is likely to see new restrictions this summer.
“The vines are healthy and happy and growing like crazy” after the rains of the past month, said Jeff Butter, assistant vineyard manager at Cavender Creek Vineyards.
If it stopped raining in the next couple of weeks and didn’t rain until harvest, we would probably be OK.” Vineyard operators say 2016 was one of their best years ever because of its hot, dry summer.
Even normal amounts of rain in August or early September, when the grapes are close to harvesting, can dilute the all-important sugar in the berries that makes good wine.
“Just like anything else, you put water in something and it waters it down,” Parker said.
“Last year was an awesome year.
I think it started out a little rainy in the spring last year too, but it dried up and it was really, really good for the grapes last year,” Parker said.

Drought is gone from much of US.
Much of the country is currently drought-free (shown in white).
Areas of Florida, too, continue to suffer from severe drought conditions—a stark contrast to early 2016, when it received record rainfalls.
Image via NASA.
At the end of April 2017, just 6 percent of the United States was afflicted by drought – the lowest level in 17 years of analysis by the U.S. Drought Monitor, according to a report from NASA’s Earth Observatory.
That is a substantial turnaround from a few years ago, when long and short term droughts spread across much of the nation.
Matthew Rodell, a hydrologist at NASA, said in a statement: Two parts of the country that have composed a big portion of [its] drought area in the last decade, Texas and California, now have mostly normal conditions.
Rainfall gave some respite in late 2012 before much of the country started drying out again.
By 2014, half of the U.S. was experiencing some level of drought.
Bottom line: As of the end of April, 2017, drought has disappeared from much of the United States.

WCM approved, new drought operations started.
Within days of signing a Decision of Record for an updated water control manual, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers initiated new drought control measures on the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river system.
At 1,062.46 feet, the ACF’s largest reservoir was still about eight and a half feet below summer full pool of 1,071 feet.
Hopes for a rainy spring to replenish the lake in time for summer recreation went unfulfilled in March and most of April.
When the lake level drops to 1,064 feet, no water is left in the swim areas.
The recently updated ACF water control manual, approved March 30, includes a revised Drought Contingency Plan that initiates drought operations when the federal reservoir projects’ composite conservation storage reaches Zone 3 instead of the lower Zone 4.
“It is unusual to initiate drought operations when two of the three reservoirs are full, but doing so provides the opportunity to conserve water as conditions are expected to get worse,” she said.
The WCM requires that drought plan provisions remain in place until the composite conservation storage reaches Zone 1.
“These manuals provide the framework on how the federal projects in the ACF River Basin will be operated.” The manual, which grants Georgia all the water it requested from the ACF, has provoked the ire of Florida officials, who claim it deprives their state of water needed to sustain the ecology and economy of Apalachicola Bay.
The Corps also contends that the new drought operations plan will improve the resilience of the system during drought.

Corps of Engineers launching new drought operations for ACF Basin.
The drought that has caused Lake Lanier to drop well below its full pool level is now forcing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take a different approach to downstream water releases.
The corps’ Mobile District office announced it has begun implementing drought operations on the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Basin.
Officials said they are cutting the releases from 12,100 cubic feet per second to 5,000 cubic feet per second at Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam at Lake Seminole, where the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers merge on the Georgia-Florida line to become the Apalachicola.
“By entering drought operations, the minimum flow into the Apalachicola River to protect threatened and endangered species becomes 5,000 cubic feet per second,” District Public Affairs Officer Lisa Hunter said in a statement.
“Provisions of the ACF drought plan allow us to maintain this minimum flow and store all available rainfall, when possible, until the basin recovers sufficiently to come out of drought operations.” The new reduced water releases were put into place immediately after a new water control manual for the basin, which allows the corps to start drought operations sooner, was put into effect.
Another reservoir on the river, however, is Lake Lanier, which has seen water levels drop from last May until this spring, bottoming out at 1,060.22 on Dec. 31.
That is still nearly nine feet below its full pool level of 1,071 feet.
Still, the above normal levels at two of the three reservoirs on the Chattahoochee, as well as the heavy rains that moved through Georgia this week, means there will be some lag on getting water releases down to 5,000 cubic feet per second.
“Because the West Point and Walter F. George reservoirs are above normal pool levels and normal rainfall is forecasted this week, reduced releases from the Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam will not occur immediately.” Hunter said.

Metro Atlanta Remains In ‘Unusual’ Drought.
But not in metro Atlanta, most of which remains in a "Level 2" drought response.
Gainesville has gotten more than 20 inches less rain in the past year than a normal year.
The warm winter means more water has evaporated from the lake and from the soil and plants, said Bill Murphey, state climatologist and head meteorologist for Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division.
It’s not unusual to see lake levels get drawn down during the year, Harvey said, but around this time of year should be a wet season, when the lake refills.
That’s troubling, said Katherine Zitsch, natural resources manager at the Atlanta Regional Commission, because even during droughts the lake usually refills at least a bit.
“Sometimes it’s 10 feet in one winter, sometimes it’s 5 feet in one winter.
“This drought there is no upward trend.” Zitsch said this drought has taken the worst aspects of two previous droughts and combined them.
“The ’07 drought it was very dry in September-October-November, and this drought repeated that.
But what’s upstream of the reservoir is a very small watershed.” So Lake Lanier is like a huge tub that’s filled by a relatively small faucet, which, over the past year, has been turned down to just a trickle.

Gwinnett water officials urging conservation during drought.
The department issued a reminder of Gwinnett’s Level 2 Drought Response status on Friday.
“Lake Lanier is a large reservoir, fed by smaller streams that have been slow to recover from the drought,” water department spokeswoman Karen Shields said in a statement.
The corps’ website for the lake showed the lake’s midnight pool level was 1,060.94 as of Thursday night.
A full Lake Lanier level would be 1,071 feet.
North of Lake Lanier, up around where the Chattahoochee River’s headwaters are located in the north Georgia mountains, extreme drought conditions still exist, according to the United States Drought Monitor.
Because the drought response in place is in place, Shields said residents can’t wash streets, sidewalks or driveways, nor can they use water for decorative fountains or waterfalls, non-commercial pressure washing or non-commercial car washing.
That means car wash fundraisers are a no go as well.
Odd numbered addresses are restricted to before 10 a.m. and after 4 p.m. on Thursdays and Sundays.
“The Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources encourages residents to make water conservation a priority,” Shields said.

Drought Restrictions Eased, But Not For Most Of Atlanta.
Georgia is loosening water use restrictions in more than 80 counties as the drought has eased, but not for most metro Atlanta counties.
The drought has improved in much of Georgia over the past couple months, but it’s still affecting Lake Lanier and the Chattahoochee River.
So while the state is lifting outdoor water use rules in 86 counties, the restrictions are staying in place for 12 counties that rely on that water.
They are Cobb, Coweta, DeKalb, Douglas, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Habersham, Hall, Lumpkin, Paulding and White counties.
“Winter rains have brought needed relief to much of the state, but Lake Lanier, the Chattahoochee River and smaller streams in the region have been slow to recover,” Richard Dunn, director of Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division, said in an email.
In the latest report from the U.S. Drought Monitor, the northern edge of the state – including the area around the Chattahoochee River’s headwaters – is experiencing extreme drought conditions.
Even when there are no drought-related watering restrictions, Georgia limits outdoor watering.
It’s only ever allowed between 4 p.m. and 10 a.m. For the 12 counties still under a "Level 2" drought response, watering is restricted to those hours, and to two days a week.
Other prohibited activities are non-commercial car washes and hosing down streets, sidewalks, and ornamental fountains.