“Protecting our shoreline provides stabilization, which decreases erosion, thus protecting water quality by keeping sediment out of the lake,” LLA said in a newsletter.
“The riprap also assists in dissipating wave energy heading back in the opposite direction towards the lake. If you like to fish, riprap areas are not bad places to search for fish either. We only have so much shoreline and we need to protect it.”
With some 12 million visitors per year, Lake Lanier sees “a lot of wave action,” the organization said.
Strengthening the shoreline “also impacts the volume of water in the lake,” said Skip Short, an LLA board member overseeing the project, told The Times. “People don’t realize that all the sediment that comes off the banks ends up in the lake, which decreases the water volume, which decreases the amount of available drinking water.”
And then there are scenic benefits, as the effort works to prevent “losing islands that will never come back,” Short said.
The project – an extension of an earlier effort that wrapped up in 2020 – will provide a mile of riprap in 16 areas on the south end and middle of the lake, according to the newsletter.
“These areas were selected based on past and recent surveys done regarding shoreline erosion,” LLA said. “The majority of areas selected are islands or where there is a very high concentration of boat traffic with noticeable erosion.”
The project is underway, with Short saying he hopes it will be completed before summer 2025.
“Our goal would be to add more (project sites) if funding efforts allow it,” he said.
LLA expects Project Armor to cost $600,000-plus, executive director Victoria Clevenger said.
About 75% of the project budget has been funded by the Hall, Gwinnett and Forsyth counties, which surround the lake, and “other various donations,” she said.
LLA still needs to raise about $150,000 to fully fund the project, with fundraising campaigns expected “over the next few months and into the first half of 2025,” Clevenger said.
“We’re asking those who love Lake Lanier and support this full lake effort to consider ‘Funding a Foot’ with a $100 donation to LLA’s Project Armor effort,” she added.
Learn More about Project Armor, LLA’s riprap efforts here.
