Georgia water conservation order lifted

With lake levels rising and months of water conservation efforts paying off, the state Tuesday officially called off a 10 percent conservation order Gov. Sonny Perdue imposed last fall on water systems across North Georgia.

While the directive actually expired on March 30, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division could have kept it in effect during the rest of this spring and summer, when rainfall tends to be low and surface-water evaporation high.

But the State Drought Response Committee, meeting on Tuesday, decided that ongoing enforcement of outdoor water-use restrictions and voluntary conservation efforts have achieved enough savings that the governor's order no longer was necessary.

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"Winter rain and rising lake levels bring us hope, but citizens should not be fooled into thinking the drought is over," EPD Director Carol Couch said in a prepared statement. "We are in better shape than last fall, but we need to continue to manage our water supply to get us through the long hot summer."

Level Four water-use restrictions remain in effect across the northern third of the state, meaning most outdoor uses of water are prohibited.

However, Couch said that utilities and local governments that do not rely on Lake Lanier and water releases directly from Buford Dam will be allowed to petition for a "modified drought response." That would give them some flexibility from Level Four restrictions, which ban all but some commercial outdoor water use, the filling of swimming pools and limited landscape watering.