Lake Lanier Water Supply Storage 

There are five (5) municipalities which are permitted by EPD to withdraw surface water from Lake Lanier for the purposes of municipal water supply: City of Buford, City of Cumming, Forsyth County, City of Gainesville, and Gwinnett County.  

On January 20, 2021, the Army Corps of Engineers entered into a contract with the State of Georgia allocating 254,170 acre-feet of Lake Lanier's storage for water supply purposes.  The executed contract is provided here:

• Storage Contract between Army Corps of Engineers and State of Georgia  

On September 26, 2022, EPD entered into sub-contracts with the above-referenced municipalities for further allocating this water supply storage among the individual providers. The executed sub-contracts are provided here: 

• City of Buford Sub-Contract
• City of Cumming and Forsyth County Sub-Contract
• City of Gainesville Sub-Contract
• Gwinnett County Sub-Contract 

As required by these sub-contracts, each of the providers must regularly report to EPD their daily water withdrawals and wastewater returns. The State's current storage accounting based on these reports is provided here: 

• Storage Accounting Spreadsheet
• Updated on 2-19-2026