Companies struggle to slash water use by 10 percent

Today's the first day that city and county water utility companies in North Georgia are working under tighter state limits. But many are still hashing out how, exactly, to get their customers to use less water.

Last week, Governor Sonny Perdue ordered water withdrawal permit-holders to reduce their water usage by 10 percent between November and March. Kevin Chambers, spokesperson for Georgia's Environmental Protection Division, says it's OK that some counties and municipalities haven't figured out how to do that yet:

"Many of them have called us for guidance on this as well. And what we're recommending they do is identify their big users, if they've got industry that is using significant amounts of water, to work with industry to try to reduce their water use."

Some counties are looking into incentives. Gwinnett County, for example, is considering rebates for people who replace their toilets with low-flush toilets. Both the city of Atlanta and DeKalb County are expected to announce concrete water-saving measures tomorrow.