With the General Assembly three-quarters of the way through this year's session, one clear answer has emerged on how the state plans to deal with north Georgia's historic drought: Build more reservoirs.

House Bill 1226 would create a state division for the sole purpose of building new ones and expanding old ones, while Senate Bill 342 would create a funding mechanism for the state to pay up to 40 percent of the costs.

Phil Skinner/AJC (ENLARGE)

There are currently about 20 acres of water in the reservoir from rain run off and Hickory Log Creek.

Phil Skinner/AJC (ENLARGE)

The reservoir at Hickory Log Creek in Canton is awaiting final inspections and completion of pumping stations on the Etowah River.

• Photos MORE ON THE DROUGHT: • Map: Heavy demands on our water • Photos: April showers bring ... • Photos: Lake rises dramatically in January RELATED: State lifts strict outdoor watering restrictions  Ban lifted on new Lake Lanier boat docks  Drought's over and Lake Lanier gets lively  Water wars judge stays patient, with Atlanta's future in his hands  Judge: Lanier use should have been decided long ago  • More on coping with the drought

But consider this: A dozen new water supply reservoirs are already underway in Georgia, seven of them in metro Atlanta. One, Hickory Log Creek Reservoir in Cherokee County, should be ready next year to start supplementing supplies for the city of Canton and the Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority.

Since 2000, another eight reservoirs in the metro region have gotten green lights from state and federal governments. Most have been built. Including Hickory Log Creek, their total capacity is more than 200 million gallons of water a day, according to state data. That's enough water to supply the one million residents of the city of Atlanta and Fulton County.

But is it enough to drought-proof the metro region, with room to grow? No one knows for sure. That's what metro Atlanta's water planning district is working on this year, as it updates its 2003 water plan.

The statewide water plan, approved early in the legislative session, is expected to answer the same question for the rest of the state by 2011.

Environmentalists argue for waiting on those plans before bottling up any more rivers and destroying wetlands.

"We might not need any more in metro Atlanta if [all the proposed reservoirs] come on line and if we conserve," said Elizabeth Nicholas, general counsel for the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, an environmental advocacy group.

"We need to get that answer before we spend a lot of taxpayers money on siting new reservoirs."

Of course the answer to how much more water the region needs is totally dependent on the outcome of interstate battles over lakes Lanier and Allatoona.

Georgia, Alabama and Florida have battled since 1989 on how to allocate water from those two federal reservoirs. They are metro Atlanta's main water sources. But Florida wants to protect releases downstream to benefit endangered species and its fishing industry. Alabama needs downstream water from the Coosa River-Allatoona basin for power generation, drinking water, navigation and agriculture.

The federal government said last week it will intervene after negotiations among the three states broke down in February.

David Word, a former state environmental regulator who now works as a consultant and a lobbyist for engineering companies, said the region is going to need more reservoirs no matter what happens.

If the lakes "can be used optimally for water supply, then there's less new storage needed," Word said. "If they can't be, more reservoirs under local control would probably be needed."

Most of the proposed and recently built reservoirs are relatively small. They tend to fall in a range from about 150 acres to 800 acres. Gone are the days of Lanier-sized reservoirs. Lanier covers about 38,000 acres.

The costs of those large lakes are too great, said James Mathis, president of Infratec Consultants Inc., an Atlanta environmental engineering firm that's working on four of the proposed reservoirs in the state.

"The environmental impacts are huge," Mathis said. "And the land cost is too high and land's already too developed. It would displace a lot of people.

"Everybody agrees the days of building big lakes are over. Even the small reservoirs are not being built on large streams."

Even with state help, the costs of reservoirs are likely to be borne by water customers. The most legislators have proposed for a state reservoir fund is $250 million.

At 410 acres, Hickory Log Creek cost Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority and the city of Canton more than $100 million, a cost that will be repaid by consumers.