While I wholly agree that we should completely cease issuing new permits for tying into the water system, politicians won't advocate that because it will reduce various revenue coffers and that will engender heated discussions of tax raises and reduced tax bases and then everyone gets huffy and mad.

However, Mr. Whatley, to answer your question as to why we still cannot and should not water, I give you state climatologist David Stooksbury and his weekly report:

"Even normal rainfall this summer won't help," Stooksbury said.

North Georgia has received only 70 to 80 percent of normal rainfall since Oct. 1. That's not enough to recharge lakes, streams, groundwater or soil moisture.

Rains haven't ended severe drought

Perhaps Mr. David Cree, who wrote in his LTE in the 4/15/08 Citizen will also read this and understand that when you chose to work in a profession dependent on the whims of nature, you run the risk of going out of business like any other company.

A couple of days of rain has not and will not undo the problems caused by low rainfall, poor planning and lack of common sense. We can't make it rain but we can use common sense and realize unnecessary and wasteful water use is ignorant and foolish, regardless of how much rain we have. Or more to our situation: don't have.