ATLANTA (AP) — The ex-wife of R&B singer Usher is calling to drain Georgia’s largest lake, where her son was fatally injured 11 years ago.
Fashion designer Tameka Foster has collected more than 2,500 signatures for her online petition imploring officials to “drain, clean, and restore” Lake Sidney Lanier, to allow for safety improvements and the removal of hazardous debris and other obstructions.
Kile Glover, her 11-year-old son with Bounce TV founder Ryan Glover, died in July 2012 after a personal watercraft struck the boy as he floated in an inner tube on the lake.
“Draining, cleaning, and restoring Lake Lanier is not only necessary but also an opportunity to honor the memory of those who have lost their lives and prevent further tragedies,” Foster wrote in her change.org petition, which she has also promoted on her Instagram page.
Located roughly 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 just a getaway for millions of boaters, anglers and other yearly visitors.
The lake provides drinking water for about 5 million people, according to the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper conservation group. And Buford Dam at the lake’s southern end generates hydroelectric power for the metro Atlanta area.
The Army Corps of Engineers constructed 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 in the past three decades, according the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. The agency reported more than 170 boating and drowning deaths between 1994 and 2018.
Foster and Usher married in 2007 and divorced two years later.