As of Wednesday morning, the reservoir held enough for about 132 days of drinking, power production and wastewater needs, based on analysis of federal data by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Earlier this month, Lanier hit its lowest level in more than 25 years. On November 16, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began cutting downstream releases by 5 percent.

Jonathan Davis of the Army Corps of Engineers told more than 100 people at a drought management forum in Gainesville last night that rain in areas south of the lake will allow the Corps to reduce releases more.

The National Weather Service says Columbus received more than 2.5 inches of rain between Sunday and Monday. That rainfall did not affect Lake Lanier's level, but it added to the amount of water flowing through the lower Chattahoochee and Flint rivers.

Davis said it also supplemented the amount of water that must flow through the Apalachicola River to protect endangered mussels and sturgeon in Florida.

The agency, which operates the lake and others along the Chattahoochee River, had planned by to reduce water releases to Florida by another 5 percent on December 7th.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)