This year's General Assembly started and ended with water legislation, fitting bookends as metro Atlanta and much of North Georgia contend with a record-setting drought despite recent rain.

The 2008 session started in January with both chambers signing off on Georgia's first statewide water plan.

It ended, with just seconds to spare, on a vote to create a new state agency with the sole purpose of building and expanding water supply reservoirs.

In between, the chambers approved a resolution to undo a flawed 1818 survey and move Georgia's border one mile north to tap into the Tennessee River. The Legislature also threw a lifeline to the ailing landscape industry with a bill that would require cities and counties to get state permission to enforce tougher outdoor watering restrictions than the state does.

The governor and Legislature put $120 million into building reservoirs and water and sewer projects, and $11.1 million, mostly in existing federal funds, into starting to collect data for the statewide water plan.

However, several water conservation efforts got no traction, including a measure that would require new multifamily dwellings to install water meters for each unit. Another would have prohibited neighborhood associations from penalizing homeowners who plant drought-resistant vegetation.

On Monday, Elizabeth Nicholas, general counsel for the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, an environmental advocacy group focused on water issues, described the session as "a giant missed opportunity."

"I don't think we've ever had a time when dealing with the water is more critical than it is right now," said Nicholas, who also speaks for the Georgia Water Coalition of 161 environmental, civic and religious organizations that advocate for clean water. "It's really disappointing to see that the biggest thing the Legislature wants to do is go steal Tennessee's water for our solution, rather than using it more wisely at home."

One of the session's most important water bills almost did not make it. About 30 minutes before Friday's midnight deadline to end the 2008 session, Speaker Glenn Richardson took to the well of the House to save his reservoir bill. The House had to attach it to Senate Bill 342, to work around a stall in that chamber.

Several representatives had argued against the bill because it no longer prohibited transferring water from one river basin to another. Communities downstream of metro Atlanta in particular are worried about their water being used to feed growth here, with less water being left for them.

Environmental groups also opposed the bill, because, they said, it favored building reservoirs over conservation efforts and pre-empted the statewide water plan.

"This summer, we had the worst drought in the history of this state, and I said we must do something. We must build reservoirs," Richardson said in an impassioned speech that won over his chamber. "You get one chance to do this. If we come back next year, we'll never build reservoirs."

The bill passed the House 111-59 and was transmitted immediately to the Senate, where it was the last bill taken up, right at midnight. It passed easily and now awaits the governor's signature.