The 1071 Coalition of Lake Lanier will announce the results of its economic impact study at a public meeting on Tuesday, December 7. The meeting will be held at Legacy Lodge at Lake Lanier Islands Resort, starting at 7 p.m. The meeting is open to the public.

“The numbers from the study show the economic values lost in 2008, when the lake was at historic lows,” said Alex Laidlaw, president of the 1071 Coalition. “Attendees to the meeting will find that the impact was even greater than we anticipated as we present the full findings of the report.”

The study was commissioned in 2009 to provide a quantitative measure of the economic impacts of low lake levels on the economies of the counties bordering the lake, the metro Atlanta region and the state of Georgia.

The study, funded by the 1071 Coalition, was conducted by Bleakley Advisory Group, PBS&J and Dr. Bruce Seaman. Initial findings of the report were presented last year and included the following initial data:

There are more than 10,000 employers within the immediate Lake Lanier area, and most of them are private-sector businesses. There are nearly 1,000 government and non-profit entities. Nearly 140,000 people work within the immediate Lake Lanier area. More than 200,000 people live in the immediate Lake Lanier area, an 87 percent increase from 2000 and a 102 percent increase from 1990.

Additionally, 215 area businesses employing nearly 1,900 persons are directly engaged in marine-related, lodging and amusement and recreation services. These businesses have estimated combined annual sales of $145.7 million. More than 2,400 additional businesses are engaged in home construction and related activities, employing 9,400 workers and generating annual sales of $1.1 billion. Most of these businesses are dependent to some degree on Lake Lanier, according to Dun & Bradstreet.

The 1071 Coalition is a non-profit organization comprised of citizens, civic groups, business and other entities dedicated to maintaining water levels in Lake Lanier that sustain water supply, recreation, and economic prosperity through the advocacy of appropriate, science-based water releases necessary for the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River basin.

For more information about the 1071 Coalition, visit www.1071coalition.org.