Hughes noted

that "Coweta County residents have had an excellent response to the

current restrictions, cutting their usage dramatically from May to October."

In May customers of the Coweta County Water System were using 225 million

gallons per month; in October that usage had dropped some 39 percent to

139 million gallons per month, he said.

Coweta County

is continuing to work with other entities to increase water supplies,

Hughes said, and has agreed with Atlanta to acquire approximately three

million gallons per day by early summer 2001 with 10-15 million gallons

per day by 2005. There is already an agreement with the city of Griffin

to provide 5-10 million gallons per day by 2004 and B.T. Brown Reservoir

is scheduled to go on-line in 2003, providing approximately eight million

gallons per day, he said.

"Newnan

Utilities and Coweta County have planned well as far as water supplies

for our customers are concerned. You just can't plan for a drought of

this magnitude," said Hughes. "This is among the worst droughts

we have seen in Coweta County."