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Backyard gardeners and summer swimmers in metro Atlanta still don't know if they'll be able to count on water this year.

More than a week after Gov. Sonny Perdue announced he would allow pool-filling and some landscape watering despite the continued drought, the local officials who actually make those decisions are still undecided. In the meantime, the ban on most outdoor watering remains in effect.

None of the big water providers —Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett or Fulton counties or the city of Atlanta— has made a final decision.

Mary Kay Woodworth, president of the Georgia Urban Agricultural Council of landscapers, growers and retail garden centers, said her members are getting anxious. They're delaying decisions about planting, stocking and hiring, she said.

"We are at the mercy of the local utilities," Woodworth said.

In Atlanta, Commissioner of Watershed Management Rob Hunter said he's likely to opt for something more stringent than the governor suggested. That's because Atlanta and other water providers will still be under a state mandate to reduce water use by at least 10 percent from last summer.

"We were already in conservation last summer, so you're trying to get 10 percent under what you conserved last year," Hunter said, referring to Atlanta's decision to restrict outdoor water use to only one day a week at the same time the state was still allowing a three-day-a-week schedule. The target will not be easy to meet, he said.

Atlanta serves more than 1 million people in the city, most of south Fulton and the Sandy Springs area.

Most metro Atlanta jurisdictions are leaning toward allowing homeowners, neighborhood associations and others to fill their swimming pools. State Environmental Protection Division Director Carol Couch, who recommended that the governor ease up on the watering restrictions, said pool-filling accounts for less than 1 percent of total water used in the 61 north Georgia counties under the ban.

Watering yards is a different story. Couch suggested, and the governor agreed, that the state would allow homeowners to use a garden hose on their lawns and gardens for 25 minutes from midnight to 10 a.m. on the three-day-a-week schedule. Odd-numbered addresses could water Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Even-numbered addresses could water Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Home and business owners also could use sprinklers on new plants and trees on the odd-even schedule for up to ten weeks, after they take an online water conservation class. Couch said the additional water used for those purposes will account for less than 10 percent of the total.

Hunter said the governor's suggested rules are confusing and hard to enforce.

"How do you enforce a 25-minute watering approval?" Hunter asked. "We are now defaulting to individual opinions of dozens of [water] utilities. Part of the value of a consistent statewide program is that everybody understands the rules."