Pray for buckets of rain (this is a rant of epic proportions!)

We moved to Lake Lanier (GA) from Lake Powell (UT/AZ) for two main reasons.

The first being that a tree hugger environmentalist group sued the Department of Interior, trying to ban personal watercraft (we are going to call them jetskis for the sake of this rant) from Lake Powell, due to pollution and noise. This was back when jetskis all had 2-stroke engines, now all current models have 4-stroke engines that are much quieter and less polluting. Obviously, this was not good for my business of renting jetskis.

The second reason we packed up the business and moved here is because Lake Powell was in the middle of a pretty big draught situation. It turns out that the ban on jetskis only lasted a short time, but we were still glad we left because Lake Powell became so low, most, if no all of the 6 ramps they have on this ginormous lake were out of the water.

Our first five years here have been pretty good. The lake levels have fluctuated some what and every year about this time some of the ramps are not usable. But, let me tell you something!!! This region of the country is having a SERIOUS draught problem right now! Lake Lanier, which is half the size of Lake Powell, has 76 boat ramps (not to include the ramps at the 10 marinas on the lake). Both the Gainesville Times and the Atlanta Journal Constitution ran stories the other day about our dire situation. Currently there are ONLY 14 RAMPS OPEN ON THE ENTIRE LAKE! Did you get that? That means there are now 62 ramps out of the water!!!!!! The prediction is that only 8 will be usable by mid October. WTF????

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Lake Sidney Lanier

The Army Corp of Engineers, who manages this lake, has done a pretty good job of marking hazard areas (ie; rocks and tree stumps under the surface or shallow areas). Get this…EVERY single permanent hazard marker is now out of the water and they are having a helluva time keeping up with marking all the new hazards. They put out a statement the other day saying that you should use the ramps, and the lake in general, at your own risk and that night navigation was strongly discouraged. There is actually quite a bit of traffic on the lake at night normally. In fact that is usually my favorite time to be on the lake. It has never been a problem, because Blain (and Tal for that matter) knows the lake like the back of his hand. Guess what? Last week, he was taking some business associates out for an evening cruise and got the boat stuck plowed on to a sand bar. So stuck in fact that he had to call a tow boat to get unstuck! He was driving in an area that he has driven hundreds of times at night. Luckily, no damage to the boat, he was quick enough to bring the drive up in time. Whew!

We have three more rentals scheduled and may have to cancel the ones for this weekend. I can not make any more reservations this year, which totally sucks, because I rented all the way through Oct 19th last year. Tomorrow I have the Junior Golf association taking out two ski boats and four jet skis. Hmmmm…first of all it is going to be a bitch to launch all of these watercraft. The ramp we are using can do the jet skis fine but, the ski boat trailers are big long double axle monsters. The chances are high that they will go off the ramp into the gooey, muddy Georgia red clay and we will have to muscle them back out. I’m praying that we don’t have to call a tow truck! Next thing to worry about…I can almost guarantee we will have damage. Prop and drive damage at the least, maybe some gel coat on the bottom of the boats as well. What a way to end a season!

I am praying for two things:

1. RAIN, RAIN, and more RAIN!!! I hate to say it but, we need some tropical weather in the form of hurricanes or at the very least tropical storms, to hit this region. The year we had Ivan, Dennis, Katrina and Rita remnants roll up from the Gulf the Lake was at full pool. Unfortunately, it sucks for those on the coastlines, but we have more than dry ramps to worry about here. Water rationing is already in full force (thank God I don’t worry about watering my weeds yard and we have well water coming in our pipes. Can a well go dry during a draught? I need to check on that. Oh who cares, I’ll be moving to a new house soon enough).

2. The people who run this lake need to pull their heads out of their asses and use this opportunity to the best of their advantage. Strangely enough, the dipshits that run Lake Powell were smart enough to extend their ramps while the lake was at a record low. Let’s put our thinking caps on people and pour some concrete this winter so that when this happens again (and it will) it won’t be so devastating to the local economy, which is built around the money made off the lake!

Fun facts:
Lake Lanier is currently 11 feet below average pool for this time of year (it is 13 feet below full pool) and is projected to be 18 feet below full pool on Oct 19th of this year. Think that is something to bitch about? Read on…
Lake Powell on the other hand is 98 feet below full pool. And that is not even as low as it has been in the past couple of years. On May 1, 2006, Lake Powell was 120 feet from full pool (or at 40% capacity). DAMN!!! (Now you know why we were pretty happy we left!)

Lake Lanier is what I call a “for profit” lake. The water that comes from the Chattahoochee River system flows into the lake from the north end and leaves again as the Chattahoochee River on the south end. Although the water is pulled for use as municipal drinking water for the Metro Atlanta and surrounding area, they make some serious commercial money from this lake. Like I said, there are tons of marinas and boat ramps and houses with docks surround every inch of the lake (zoom in on the map above, you can see all the marinas, personal docks, etc). The Corps makes a killing on the lake with concession and dock fees. They have placed a moratorium on dock permits (meaning all the rich folks building new lake houses can’t put up their party docks *sniff*), so no more money there. Plus, if people can’t launch their boats, they can’t pay the ramp fees! Yet again huge loses of revenue to the Corps.

Lake Powell on the other hand is what I call a “not-for profit” lake. You cannot build with in miles of the shore line and there are only six marinas (two of which are not accessible by land) and six boat ramps on a lake that is 186 miles long with more than 1,986 miles of shoreline. To put that number into perspective, the western US has a shore line of only 1743 miles! (Lake Lanier has 692 miles of shoreline and has 7.5 million visitors per year compared to 3.1 million for Lake Powell.)

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Lake Powell (Glen Canyon Recreational Area)

I have seen a huge difference between the eastern and western US philosophy when it comes to natural resources. The eastern side says screw it, lets make some cash money! The western side actually does the conservation thing. Obviously, the eastern side is more conducive to my line of business. I think we could find a happy medium if we could get the money grubbers easterners and tree huggers westerners to find a middle ground.

Our season may have abruptly ended but, we are going to make lemonade from these lemons. Lots and lots of gigantic houseboats can not be pulled from the lake right now or throughout the winter, which is when they are normally pulled for service. Hey! Blain’s a diver! and can service many things from underwater! Now that’s using the old noggin!

Final Notes:
While researching the information for this rant I came across this statement on the official Lake Powell Water Database website refering to one of their boat launch sites:

[Condition of] Blue Notch is unknown and really just shoreline launching at whatever point feels good. No minimum given except amount of courage it takes to reach this launch.

Tee hee…somebody was bored at work that day.

Also, I think its interesting to look at the huge physical differences between the two lakes. Check out the maps above. Definitely more trees and civilization here. Lake Powell may look desolate, but it is the most amazing place to visit!