ATLANTA (AP) — The ex-wife of R&B singer Usher is calling for the draining of Georgia’s largest lake, where her son was fatally injured 11 years ago.
Fashion designer Tameka Foster has garnered more than 2,500 signatures for her online petition pleading with authorities to ‘drain, clean and restore’ Lake Sidney Lanier, to enable safety improvements and the removal of hazardous debris and other obstacles.
Kile Glover, his 11-year-old son with Bounce TV founder Ryan Glover, died in July 2012 after a personal watercraft hit the boy as he floated in an inner tube on the lake.
“Draining, cleaning up and restoring Lake Lanier is not only necessary, but also an opportunity to honor the memory of those who lost their lives and prevent further tragedies,” Foster wrote in her change.org petition, which ‘she also promoted. Instagram page.
Located about an hour’s drive northeast of Atlanta, Lake Lanier covers nearly 60 square miles (155 square kilometers) and has waters up to 160 feet (49 meters) deep. It’s far from a simple getaway for millions of boaters, anglers and other annual visitors.
The lake provides drinking water for about 5 million people, according to the conservation group Chattahoochee Riverkeeper. And the Buford Dam at the south end of the lake generates hydroelectric power for the Atlanta metro area.
The Army Corps of Engineers built Lake Lanier in the 1950s. The Corps’ district office in Mobile, Alabama, which still operates the lake, did not immediately return phone and email messages seeking comment Thursday.
Heavy traffic on the lake has resulted in hundreds of boat collisions over the past three decades, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. The agency reported more than 170 boating and drowning-related deaths between 1994 and 2018.
Foster and Usher married in 2007 and divorced two years later.