CUMMING, Ga. (AP) - With water supplies rapidly shrinking during
a drought of historic proportions, Governor Sonny Perdue declared a state of emergency Saturday for the northern third of Georgia and asked President Bush to declare it a major disaster area.

Georgia officials warn that Lake Lanier, a 38,000-acre reservoir
that supplies more than 3 million residents with water, is less
than three months from depletion. Smaller reservoirs are dropping
even lower.

Perdue asked the president to exempt Georgia from complying with
federal regulations that dictate the amount of water released from
Georgia's reservoirs to protect federally protected mussel species
downstream.

The governor's office yesterday asked a federal judge to force
the Army Corps of Engineers to curb the amount of water it drains
from Georgia reservoirs into streams in Alabama and Florida.
Georgia's environmental protection director is drafting proposals
for more water restrictions.

More than a billion gallons flow downstream from the north
Georgia lake everyday, much of it flowing southwest to Alabama and
eventually to Florida.

The Corps bases its water releases on two requirements: The
minimum flow needed to operate a coal-fired power plant in Florida
and mandates to protect two mussel species in a Florida river.

Georgia lawmakers say the law has been exploited by its
neighbors as a tool to draw more water from Georgia's lakes at a
time when the region is suffering from an exceptional drought.

Georgia was placed under statewide water restrictions in April
that limited outdoor watering to three days a week.

By May Atlanta allowed watering only on weekends, and in
September environmental officials banned virtually all outdoor
watering through the northern half of the state.

The state of emergency Perdue declared Saturday affects 85
counties, more than half of the Georgia's counties. The state
declaration creates an emergency team that will oversee the state's
response to drought. It also could free up some state money to
respond to the water woes.