Fishing for Allatoona
December 13, 2007 at 3:36 pm by Helen Herbst in NewsEveryone’s talking about Lake Lanier and its water-level woes. It is, after all, a big deal — Lake Lanier supplies water for 60 percent of the state. But I ain’t drinkin’ it.
I, along with about 80,000 of my closest friends from Marietta and Cartersville, get my water from Allatoona Lake — or Lake Allatoona, to those who actually refer to it.
Like a bridge over no water.
Speaking to a representative from the Allatoona Lake Visitor’s Center, I asked if the lake had been drained this year, as it is every winter. The woman laughed at me. “Yeah,” she said, “it’s down about 21 feet this year.” The usual drop is around 17 feet. Interesting fact, eh?
I decided to take a trip to see the damage the drought had done to the lake six million people visit yearly.
And it looks the same, just much, much smaller.
I was able to walk on the lake bed without getting my feet wet, stepping over garbage from 1970s and ’80s fishing excursions. There were lures and line, coffee cans and beer cans and more pull tabs than you can shake a stick at, if you’re the type to shake sticks at such things.
Until recently, this 7 Up was six feet under water. I would’ve preferred a Sprite, because given the circumstance, an “Obey your thirst” joke would have been priceless.
There were a couple of fishermen there treading land with me, and even a boat, despite the fact that 13 of their 16 boat ramps are closed due to low water levels.
And the drought scuffle continues. Alabama needs Lake Lanier’s water, as Georgia does, but it has a greater claim to Allatoona. As a part of the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa (hehe) river basin, Lake Allatoona provides water to 40 percent of Alabama’s population, while it serves just 10 percent of Georgia’s.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has already decided to slow the flow of water 40 percent to 50 percent (after trying in July to increase it), in what Channel 46 News calls “an effort to make sure Allatoona remains a lake.” And Alabama Gov. Bob Riley has already written an angry letter to the Corps, trying to dissuade them.
No more information has been given on what will happen to Allatoona, so the fate of our lakes and whoever’s water is in them remains to be seen. We have no choice but to follow Perdue’s lead and pray. Or move to Evian. Dasani offers no solace.
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