Drought Drains Allatoona

By Angie Herrington, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.

Jan. 4–Third of three parts

CARTERSVILLE, Ga. — Lake Allatoona’s water level normally drops 17 feet in the winter as a flood control measure, but a lack of rainfall has pushed the lake even lower this season.

Islands that normally cannot be seen in the winter have cropped up, and some creeks and coves are nearly bone dry, said Christopher Purvis, a park ranger for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

At one cove near the lake’s dam, dozens of tree stumps and broken bottles and a single swim flipper dot the lake bed — now void of water except for a tiny stream that winds for several hundred yards. The mud still is moist enough that it leaves footprints.

“What we worry about right now is supplying water to the region, but also (the question of) is this lake going to be able to fill up next year,” Mr. Purvis said. “Hopefully we’ll have some drinking water for everyone, and like everybody else, we’re hoping for some rain.”

Rainfall at the end of December put the lake at 821 feet above sea level, only 2 feet below the mark it should be in winter, records show. Earlier in the season, the lake had been down more than 4 feet below normal.

PREPARING FOR WORST

The Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority has a couple of worst-case contingency plans if the water level at Lake Allatoona continues to drop, General Manager Glenn Page said.

The utility pumps about 45 percent of its water from Allatoona and the rest from the Chattahoochee River to provide drinking water to about 800,000 people in Cobb and Paulding counties and portions of Cherokee, Fulton and Douglas counties.

Mr. Page said temporary water pumps could be run to a deeper part of the lake about a mile away from where the utility’s water intake tower is now.

“It appears now we’re going to be able to push back that decision for a minimum of a couple of months based on what we’re seeing with the stabilization of the lake,” he said.

The lake’s water levels have stabilized somewhat since the Army Corps at the beginning of December reduced water releases from the reservoir by almost 50 percent, Mr. Page said. The recent rainfall also has helped, he said.

Mr. Page said the water provider also has its eye on the possibility of using its fourth and lowest intake gate at Allatoona if the drought persists.

The gate never has been used since the water intake tower was built in the mid-1960s, so decades of sediment must be cleaned off first to make sure it is functional, Mr. Page said.

He said he is concerned about weather projections that call for a greater chance of below-normal rainfall through March.

“Based on those predictions of rainfall, we would anticipate Lake Allatoona to continue to drop,” Mr. Page said.

Stephen Konarik, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service office in Peachtree City, Ga., said contributing to these conditions is La Nina, which results in cooler-than-normal water in the Pacific Ocean and can make winters warmer and drier in the South.

Atlanta narrowly missed setting a record for the driest year in 2007, according to the weather service. The 31.85 inches of rain that fell during the year were enough for 1954 to remain the record holder.

The late December rain helped replenish by nearly an inch the water level of Lake Lanier, which supplies water to metro Atlanta. Lanier had reached a record low on Dec. 27.

“BUSINESS AS USUAL”

Pam Alford, store manager for MarineMax boat dealership in Cartersville, Ga., said the onslaught of media coverage about the drought has created some misconceptions about Lake Allatoona water levels.

People not familiar with the lake are stunned to see the exposed banks, but she said locals know to expect the barren scenery when the Army Corps drops the lake 17 feet in the winter.

“Our customers are used to it, and we’re not shocked about it,” Ms. Alford said. “It’s pretty much business as usual, but for someone new who hasn’t seen the lake, with the publicity, they’re probably scared off.”

Business is still “pretty solid,” and boating sales representatives still can take customers out on the water for test drives, she said.

The drought, however, affected the dealership’s annual Christmas party, Ms. Alford said.

Instead of a boat parade on the water, she said, MarineMax had a rain dance theme party on dry land.

Joe Holvey, a sales consultant at the dealership, said he hopes the attention the drought has cast on Lake Allatoona will encourage the Corps not to lower the lake a full 17 feet in winter for flood control.

Lowering the lake 10 feet instead would suffice, he said.

“If they kept the full pool at 840 and drew it down to 830 in the winter, that gives them plenty for flood control and keeps us from running out of drinking water, because that’s the scary part right now,” Mr. Holvey said.

Mr. Purvis said the Flood Control Act of 1944 requires the Corps to lower Lake Allatoona 17 feet each winter. Changing that would require action by Congress, he said.

HOPING FOR A REBOUND

Some Bartow County residents have heard enough talk about the drought.

“It’s sort of a sore subject around here,” said Brenda Poston, owner of Center Last Stop Grocery near Lake Allatoona dam.

She said she opened her convenience store in August hoping to do good business selling live bait to anglers, but now the only customers buying her crickets are pet owners with reptiles.

Mr. Purvis said of the lake’s five boat ramps that are in use all year, three remain open. Low water levels have closed the others, he said.

He said some local fishermen have expressed interest in donating materials for the Corps to extend some of the boat ramps so they will be able to use them earlier when the water rises.

“We’re doing all we can to make it a little more positive with the water being down so low,” Mr. Purvis said.

Another side effect of the drought is more all-terrain vehicle riders are driving across dry lake beds, a practice the Corps prohibits, Mr. Purvis said.

“That’s been one of the biggest concerns,” he said. “They just tear up everything.”

At Allatoona Landing Marine Resort in Cartersville, everything from tires and a rain boot to car batteries and a welder’s mask are visible on the lake’s dry shore.

General Manager Cathy Mayo said the marina has had to move a dock of 28 houseboats to deeper water, in locations where electricity is unavailable, to keep the vessels floating. Some boats have had to be moved to dry storage as well, she said.

Ms. Mayo said all of this reshuffling has a financial impact, because the prices for slips without electricity and for dry storage are much lower.

“My business was off 25 percent in November (compared with the same time last year), and it’s not over yet,” she said. “If it stays like this into the spring, it will be devastating.”

E-mail Angie Herrington at aherrington@timesfreepress.com

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