ATLANTA -- The state's top environmental official issued an outdoor watering ban covering parts of north and west Georgia Friday, perhaps the most severe step environmental officials have taken in Georgia history.

The decision came after an hourlong meeting where climatologists presented data that detailed how soaring temperatures and light rainfall have sunk parts of Georgia into the driest conditions in decades.

"The times we're facing, the nature of our circumstances, are unprecedented," said the director of the state's Environmental Protection Division, Carol Couch.

The decision by Couch declares a "level four" drought from Muscogee County through metro Atlanta to east Georgia's Lincoln County. It skirts the cities of Macon and Augusta, which along with the remainder of the state will continue to follow current restrictions that limit homeowners to watering their lawns three days a week.

Sixty-one counties in north Georgia are affected by the drought level four restrictions.

Many Atlantans, like Kevin Ramos, said they will do what they can to get the state through this crisis.

"I think if we all cut back, we'll have more for later," Ramos said. "And just pray for rain."

Officials announced plans Wednesday to reduce water being released downstream to Alabama by one-third. Georgia's Lake Allatoona is dropping about a foot a week. Douglas Otto, chief hydrologist for the Mobile District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said that without the reductions and if the drought continues as it is, Allatoona could be empty by February.

The Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority gets nearly half its water from Allatoona. Low levels this summer and fall at Allatoona have forced the authority to initiate a complete watering ban in Cobb and Paulding counties and portions of Douglas, Cherokee and Fulton counties.

The lake is nearly 13 feet below normal.

The drought also continues to lower the water of Lake Lanier, metro Atlanta's primary source of drinking water. Lanier is currently 11.6 feet below normal.

The counties included under the new complete outdoor watering ban are:

• Banks
• Barrow
• Bartow
• Butts
• Carroll
• Catoosa
• Chattooga
• Cherokee
• Clarke
• Clayton
• Cobb
• Coweta
• Dade
• Dawson
• DeKalb
• Douglas
• Elbert
• Fannin
• Fayette
• Floyd
• Forsyth
• Franklin
• Fulton
• Gilmer
• Gordon
• Greene
• Gwinnett
• Habersham
• Hall
• Haralson
• Harris
• Hart
• Heard
• Henry
• Jackson
• Jasper
• Lincoln
• Lumpkin
• Madison
• Meriwether
• Morgon
• Murray
• Muscogee
• Newton
• Oconee
• Oglethorpe
• Polk
• Paulding
• Pickins
• Rabun
• Rockdale
• Stephens
• Spalding
• Towns
• Troup
• Union
• Walker
• Walton
• White
• Whitfield
• Wilkes

Here is the list of exemptions for outdoor watering during a level four drought:

• Capture and re-use of cooling system condensate or storm water in compliance with applicable local ordinances.
• Re-use of gray water in compliance with applicable local ordinances.
• Use of reclaimed wastewater by a designated user from a system permitted by EPD to provide reclaimed wastewater.
• Irrigation of personal food gardens.
• Irrigation of golf course greens.
• Watering of newly installed landscape by homeowners is prohibited. For new landscape installed prior to the drought level four declaration, the homeowner may complete their 30 watering days between the hours of midnight and 10 a.m. Proof of landscape purchase prior to the declaration date is required.
• Water of new landscape installed by certified or licensed professionals may be watered for 30 days.
  • Landscape and irrigation professionals are exempt from restrictions when on the property.
  • Homeowners must follow the hours of midnight to 10 a.m.
• Sod producers
• Ornamental growers
• Retail garden centers
• Hydro-seeding
• Power-washing
• Construction sites
• Producers of food and fiber
• Car washes
• Other activities essential to daily business
• Watering of pesticides and herbicides on turf

For more information about outdoor water use schedules, visit the EPD's Web site at www.gaepd.org.