Georgians have made it through the drought and appear to have held on to some of the conservation tips they learned during drier times.

Though Lake Lanier is now full, conservation will remain an important part of operations for Gainesville Public Utilities, said Scarlett Fuller, water conservation specialist for the city.

"For us as the water conservation program, the lake being full is a blessing," Fuller said. "Conservation for us as a utility is also a requirement (from the Metro North Georgia Water Planning District) ... That doesn’t go away just because the level of the lake comes up."

Fuller said a full lake means she will be able to shift her focus from enforcing water restrictions to public education. The importance of water conservation now lies not in protecting a scarce resource but in promoting responsible use of water to prepare for future emergencies.

"It’s still important," Fuller said. "We want to have water for future generations and for future demands."

The drought may be over, but it appears the court system is just as likely to make water scarce in the future.

"I think that conservation is going to have to be an important part of all water management in the state and certainly in the metro Atlanta area from now on," said Harold Reheis, former director of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division and a consultant for Hall County’s Glades Reservoir project.

U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson ruled in July that water withdrawal is not a congressionally authorized use of Lanier.

Magnuson’s ruling gives Georgia three years to stop using the reservoir for water consumption, negotiate with Florida and Alabama over the lake’s use or have Congress reauthorize the lake to allow water withdrawals.

The recent ruling is just the first of more to come, Reheis said.

Magnuson has yet to reach a verdict in six other lawsuits, including one about endangered species downstream of Lake Lanier.

"We may see more frequent situations where in dry weather we have to operate the lake for critters instead of people," Reheis said. "Right now we don’t know who’s going to win."

Weather is also unpredictable and is likely change again as quickly as it has over the last year.

"Just because we have a full lake doesn’t mean we’ll have a full lake next year," Reheis said. "We don’t know when the next drought is going to come. We don’t know if the next ruling by Judge Magnuson ... is going to require more changes that would draw Lake Lanier down in ways that we saw and didn’t enjoy back in ’06 and ’07 and ’08."

Gainesville Public Utilities Director Kelly Randall said since Gov. Sonny Perdue ordered the state to reduce water use by 10 percent in 2007, water use in Gainesville has stayed low.

Just before heavy conservation efforts started in September 2007, Gainesville used an average of 21.84 million gallons of water per day. By September 2008, that number dropped to 17.2 million gallons per day.

This year, the number has climbed slightly to 17.5 million gallons per day.

Randall said there are a number of reasons why water consumption remains low.

"During the drought people learned that they didn’t need to use as much water outdoors and therefore they’re not using it now," Randall said. "Also it has been an unusually wet September and October and therefore you would expect water use to be down because people really have had no need to irrigate at all."

Randall said the economy also is tied closely to water use.

"Unfortunately there are a lot of businesses that existed in previous years that no longer exist. The economic turndown has really affected the water sales," Randall said. "The construction industry is probably one of the largest employers in the Atlanta and Gainesville metropolitan areas and construction’s been really flat over the last year and indeed over the last several months still."

Randall said Gainesville Public Utilities has yet to sell a water meter this month.

Fuller said many of the efforts that city started as a result of the drought have maintained interest because the economy is still suffering.

Rain barrels sold out at a recent garden expo because they offer more benefits than just saving water.

"They save money, the water is good for the plants and they help with storm water runoff," Fuller said.

The tax free holiday for WaterSense and Energy Star Appliances earlier this month also boosted interest in efficient toilets and faucets.

Reheis said people will need to continue the water saving habits they learned during the drought as Georgia’s future water resources remain in limbo.

"It is important for us to be able to institute conservation as a permanent part of how we use water and how we manage water in this part of the state," Reheis said. "We want the existing water supplies that we do have to be stretched as far into the future as possible."