The water tankers are not yet lined up to bring relief to Southeastern cities, and neither is a remake of “The Grapes of Wrath” in the offing for the Great Plains, but, severe drought conditions around the country definitely have brought a renewed focus on the public sector's water management practices.

Last year, much of the Southeast was in the midst of what the federal government terms an “exceptional drought,” the highest level of drought intensity, while a good portion of the West and Great Plains were placed in lesser categories of “severe” and “extreme” drought. Georgia's conditions even have inspired the state's chief executive to lead a vigil praying for rain. “You have to recognize that Georgia is in a drought of historic proportions,” Gov. Sonny Perdue told National Public Radio in October. “Georgia is a blessed state. Usually we get adequate rainfall.”

At the request of the Western Governors Association in November, the federal government launched the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), which updates drought forecasts weekly on its Web site. With the situation growing dire, governors are declaring water emergencies, and states are suspecting that their neighbors are siphoning off water, proving Mark Twain's adage, “Whiskey is for drinkin' and water is for fightin'.”

A plan that delivers

Yet, amid all the hubbub about water supplies, a growing thirst is surfacing for new and innovative approaches to water management that are both cost-effective and environmentally sensitive. In developing creative solutions to their water needs, some cities, counties and other water management districts anticipated today's troubles by years and even decades.

Ironically, one solution can be found in Clayton County, Ga., right in the middle of the same metro Atlanta area that is suffering such severe drought and imposing rigorous water restrictions. “It's [as if it is] raining every day in Clayton County,” says Michael Thomas, Clayton County Water Authority's general manager. “We're putting 10 million gallons back into our reservoirs every day.”

While most of the Atlanta area depends on Lake Lanier for its drinking supply, Clayton County draws from a series of 21 man-made reservoirs and wetlands. The key to the county's system is its ability to recycle wastewater back into its drinking system, using water treatment facilities and nature's own purification system.

Recently, Atlanta residents have seen the shores of Lake Lanier recede 60 feet, limiting water from the lake to about three months without rain and the worst lake level in a generation, while Clayton County's water supply is estimated to last eight months or more, even without replenishing rains. The county has two reservoirs with a total capacity of 4.2 billion gallons.

The Clayton County system was devised about 20 years ago as a result of a drought that made the water authority aware of the unreliability of only drawing water from the Flint River and smaller creeks, as the rest of the area tapped into Lake Lanier and the Chattahoochee River. “These little creeks would dry up in the summertime, so they built reservoirs as the only way to provide for themselves,” Thomas says.

The county began digging ponds to store wastewater in the 1980s and then purchased a 4,000-acre forest, laid 300 miles of pipeline and installed 20,000 sprinklers throughout it. The sprinklers spray lightly treated wastewater into the forest, which soaks into the soil and eventually works its way back to the two man-made reservoirs.

To keep up with the demands of a growing community, the authority is replacing the forest system with 400 acres of wetlands, which are filled with cattails, bulrush, water lilies and prickle weed. Again, the water works its way back to the reservoirs. The cleansing process takes two years.

In both systems, the water receives a final treatment to ensure that it meets drinking water standards, but the wetlands area is a much more efficient use of the land, Thomas says. In addition to increasing the county's supply of water, the wetlands area is attracting new wildlife, adapting to the change from woods to wetlands. And, eventually, the unneeded forestland may be opened for more recreational use.

“We get lots of visitors who never knew this was here,” Thomas says about the wetlands area. “We get visitors from Australia and Fort Walton Beach, Fla. They are impressed that we have a natural reserve of wetlands in an urban area. And we're drought proofed.”