As rain continues

to occasionally fall, water supplies in Fayette County continue to recover

from a three-year drought.

Horton Creek

Reservoir on Antioch Road rose an additional three feet in December, going

from 7.3 feet below its normal full level to four feet low, Water System

director Tony Parrott reported to the Water Committee last week.

The Water System

averaged producing 7.6 million gallons of drinking water per day so far

in January, continuing a downward trend that started in the early fall.

Average use in December was 7.75 mgd, compared to nine mgd in October

and 7.7 mgd in November. Customers used 10.5 mgd on the heaviest usage

day in November, on the first, while the maximum so far in January was

just over eight million gallons, Jan. 7.

Peak usage

last summer was about 16 mgd.

Outdoor watering

restrictions remain in effect, but Parrott said that's only because they're

mandated by the state due to water shortages in many counties. Fayette's

supply is in good shape, he said.

Nonetheless,

residents are permitted to water only from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m. on an odd/even

system. Water on odd days if your street address is an odd number, and

vice versa.

Parrott also

reported that construction of the South Fayette Water Treatment Plant

on Antioch Road, which will add six million gallons a day to the county's

treated water capacity, is 80 percent complete. Plans are to crank the

plant up in May.

Foundation

work is complete on a two-million-gallon water storage tank at Lee's Mill

Road and Ga. Highway 92 north, he reported.

Also, phase

two of the Water System's five-year project to meter readers to do their

work using radio receivers in their cars is 95 percent finished, he said.