This problem has nothing to do with mussles, gulf Sturgeon or any other living species. Florida has been fighting in court for 10+ years to get GA to increse water flow on the hooch. They lost every case they brought before the court until they used the endangered species defense. Due to federal law GA was required to supply the river system with more water. They used the mussles and gulf sturgeon as an excuse.

They needed the higher water level to float barges farther up river and to supply a power plant just below lake seminole with more water. They did not want to invest the money to extend the water intake pipes for the coal burning power plant. They just figure out a way to raise the water and not spend the milions of dollors on the upgrades.

This is not a new issue but Florida finally won the battle. Everyone blames the Corps of Engineers but they have their hands tied by federal law. The environmentalists are the real bad guys here. This problem also affects Lake West Point as well. Hopefully they will pull the exemption on car washes and shut them down during this crisis. What people aren't talking about is the long term affects this will have a Lanier. The water level has been lower then this before by almost 5 feet. The difference is we did not have the processed water being dumped into Lanier. At some point in the near future the ratio of clean water to processed water will no longer be safe to drink. Depending on how long this lasts this ratio will only get worse.

The environmentalists say we can lose the Surgeon or mussles which really have not use as far as food goes. What about the damage this low water will do the fish in Lake Lanier and West Point? During the last drought the largemouth bass population took a big hurting because it spawning habitat was high and dry. Now we have even lower water levels and the increase polution into the lake. Nobody can say what is going to happen to any of the fih species inthe lake. Again this was never aobut the endangered species, they were just the means of for Florida to get what they want.