Water faucets never went dry during the 2007-2009 drought in Northeast Georgia.

Despite some unusual measures, municipal public utilities that use Lake Lanier were able to pull enough water to meet demand.

Thanks to new equipment and drought experience, public utility officials say they are even better prepared now if water levels drop uncomfortably low again.

"I have to say, my blood pressure is a lot lower this time around," said Jonathon Heard, public works director for Cumming.

The cities of Buford, Cumming and Gainesville draw water for Northeast Georgia communities from Lake Lanier with intake valves, iron pipes that sit below the lake's surface collecting water.

When 2007 levels fell 20 feet below full pool, one of Cumming's pipes — which provided about a third of the city's water — surfaced. When water levels drop below the tops of the pipes, they can no longer effectively take in water. The city resorted to installing back-up pipes that extended into the receding lake to pump in water.

Heard said they essentially had to "chase" the water.

This time, a new Cumming pipe much deeper than the one that surfaced, should prevent the city from those kind of steps.

Since the drought, Cumming built a new, $16 million raw intake facility with an intake pipe sitting at 1,025 feet - near 50 feet below full pool. The pipe that surfaced in 2007 was at 1,053.

The new facility went online in 2009.

Since the planning for that facility came in the midst of the drought, Heard said, city officials agreed to invest in pipes less easily affected by receding waters.

"It would be doubtful to me that it would recede below that lake pipe," he said. "As long as the lake doesn't drop below 1,028 (feet), we should be fine."

For Gainesville Public Utilities officials, the previous drought wasn't nearly as stressful. Lake levels would have to reach 1,032 for it to be a problem for the city's main pipe, said Kelly Randall, director of Gainesville Public Utilities.

"Gainesville was never concerned (in 2007 that) we wouldn't physically draw from Lake Lanier," Randall said.

It never got that low, and Randall estimates current drought conditions would have to continue for 18 months before water levels would be a problem for Gainesville Public Utilities and its customers.

"I don't want to say the lowering lake is not a concern for me," Randall said, "but today's situation is really different than it was back in 2007."

That's not to say that Gainesville doesn't have a Plan B.

If the intake pipes fail, Randall said, a "floating intake structure," or barge, would be put on the lake with a pump to suck in the receding water.

In Cumming, an emergency drought would prompt the city to use similar measures to 2007.

"We have quite a bit of experience chasing water," Heard said.