Gwinnett Asks Congress to Clarify Lake Water Use

The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners approved two resolutions at its Tuesday (March 15) meeting urging the U.S. Congress to clarify the use of Lake Lanier for public water supply and recreational purposes. The county is also asking for the authority to raise the lake’s full pool elevation by two feet, according to an announcement by the county. Lake Lanier provides water for Gwinnett County including Duluth.

Since 1973, Gwinnett County has had Army Corps of Engineers authorization to withdraw water and use storage space for public water supply in Lake Lanier under the Water Supply Act. However, a 2009 U.S. District Court ruling that water supply is not an authorized use of Lanier jeopardizes the county’s authorization.

Gwinnett produces enough water to supply 224,000 households and 14,000 businesses and to provide fire protection for more than 800,000 residents. Gwinnett County has proven itself to be a good steward of its water supply, said Lynn Smarr, acting director of the Gwinnett County Water Resources Department, in the announcement. Despite an increase in population, less water is used now compared to 2007 when conservation efforts were first put in place in response to drought conditions, Smarr said.

In addition, the county has invested billions of dollars in state-of-the-art water production and wastewater treatment facilities. One of these facilities, a nine-mile pipeline, is permitted to return up to 40 million gallons of reclaimed water daily to its source in Lake Lanier. This water is cleaner when it returns to the lake than when it was taken out, the announcement stated.

Raising Lake Lanier’s elevation by two feet to 1,073 feet above sea level would increase the available water supply by more than 25 billion gallons and would avoid the cost of building a new reservoir for the region’s growing population. This increased supply would provide an additional storage buffer in times of drought and could be used to minimize downstream impacts of low flows in the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola Rivers, benefiting both Alabama and Florida, the announcement stated. 

“There is no reasonable alternative water supply available to Gwinnett County, and the cost per gallon of usable water gained from raising the elevation is one-tenth the cost of building a reservoir,” said District 4 Commissioner John Heard. “The most cost-effective and time-sensitive solution to this regional issue is to use the resources we already have in place.”