Atlanta's water chief says the city is not going to run out of water, but he also says the metro area's main water supply -- Lake Lanier -- now contains enough water to last just four months.

The official, Robert Hunter, and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin made a plea for conservation yesterday because of a severe drought that has forced restrictions on 61 counties in north Georgia.

Hunter is commissioner of Atlanta's Department of Watershed
Management. He says the drought is "of historic magnitude,'' and
everyone must protect and conserve limited water resources.

The 61 counties essentially were banned from outdoor watering by the state on September 28th.

Both Hunter and Franklin also strongly endorsed better use of water in the home, such as having a plumber check for leaks, taking shorter showers and washing only full loads of dishes and clothes.

Franklin says the city is steadily making improvements on an outdated city water system, averaging about 700 repaired leaks a month. Hunter says the city pumps about 100 million to 120 million gallons of water per day and that about 14 percent of that is wasted in the system.