Associated Press
ROME, Ga. - A skeptical crowd of water policymakers listened as state environmental official Becky Champion outlined Georgia's decision to allow outdoor swimming pools to be filled and lawns to be watered in the midst of an ongoing drought.
Then state climatologist David Stooksbury stood to offer his own assessment: Despite recent rainfall, the stubborn drought could grow worse through the summer and into October.
Mr. Stooksbury's speech during the water policy forum wasn't designed as a rebuttal, and it wasn't part of a debate. But the conflicting message wasn't lost on the audience.
"We just jump at quick things to show we're doing something. And it's not working," said an exasperated Phil Fox, now the lone worker at his Rome landscaping company - a firm all but crippled by the record-breaking dry spell.
As Georgia braces for another sweltering summer - not to mention an election year - some environmental decisions seem jarring amid the harsh realities of the drought gripping the region.
Even environmental officials concede the response may seem uneven, but they say they're trying to cope with unpredictable conditions.
"We did it as best we could from a scientific standpoint. The crystal ball is not great from where we're looking," said Ms. Champion, an assistant branch chief with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division.
Georgia is not a leader among states when it comes to conserving water. Yet as the drought worsened, state leaders began preaching a message of conservation. Residents were urged to take shorter showers and forgo car washes.
But a separate campaign launched around the same time seemed to contradict that message. Saying they can't conserve their way out of a drought, legislative leaders backed a plan to feed consumption by creating more state-funded reservoirs .
The mixed messages continued in February, when the state began to relax a strict, drought-inspired outdoor watering ban covering north Georgia. With summer still months away, Mr. Perdue allowed water systems in the region to decide whether to allow outdoor swimming pools to be filled along with some hand watering.
Those water providers are still being threatened with fines if they don't reduce water use by 10 percent compared with last year.
"Why are we allowing people to water?" asked David Ashburn, a county official in north Georgia's Walker County. "How can you expect us to continue to reduce when you keep loosening the restrictions?"
Legislators, meanwhile, are busy chipping away at more restrictions. The Senate passed a plan exempting some car washes from outdoor watering bans. And the House is considering a plan to allow counties to enforce water restrictions that are stricter or looser than the state's standards.
"We're all out for one goal, and that's responsible use of our water resources," said state Rep. Terry England, the House measure's sponsor. "While conservation is important during a drought, these communities with plenty of water should be allowed to use it."
CONDITION IMPROVES
ATLANTA - State officials say they will not make a severe drought declaration for the lower Flint River Basin in southwest Georgia.
Georgia Environmental Protection Division Director Carol Couch says conditions there are more favorable at the start of this year's growing season than last year.
Officials say the area received good winter season rains that brought up groundwater levels.
Federal officials say drought conditions in areas of the basin that would most likely be affected by the potential declaration have improved and now are labeled as abnormally dry.
