Cobb County officials are awaiting a U.S. Corps of Army engineers permit to dredge the base of a water intake tower on Lake Allatoona to see if the lowest intake gate, unused since the mid-1960s, is operable, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said. County officials say temporary pipes to deeper parts of lakes are a contingency plan against receding water levels in lakes that supply the region.

Atlanta's water treatment plant also hasn't been able to draw as much water, so officials have spent $500,000 extra on chemicals to assist in treatment.