The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are still reviewing an April 25 request from the state of Georgia to keep more water in Lake Lanier.

The state Environmental Protection Division has said the Chattahoochee River below the lake will not suffer if the Corps sends less water downstream.

The city of Atlanta, DeKalb and Fulton counties, and the Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority draw drinking water from the river below the dam. Those entities also discharge treated sewage in the river downstream from their withdrawals.

EPD is asking the Corps to reduce the releases through May 31.

More than 30 years ago, the state determined the river at Peachtree Creek in Atlanta should carry at least 485,000 gallons of water a day to remain healthy.

But during the last drought, in 2001 and 2002, and for about six weeks from mid-March through the end of April, the Corps acquiesced to the EPD and agreed to reduce the minimum flow in the Chattahoochee to about 420,000 gallons of water a day.

The difference has allowed the Corps to keep more water in Lanier, the main source of drinking water for more than 3 million metro Atlantans.