Roswell, Georgia Water Outage Today

Who runs the water in Roswell: system profile

EPA lists one municipal water system for Roswell, serving about 14,300 people. Customers know it as Fulton County Public Works; the name on your bill is the one to call.

What feeds the taps in Roswell

Roswell drinks surface water. Roswell draws it from the Big Creek and treats it before it goes into the distribution system.

Why this matters when the water stops. A surface-water system depends on its plant staying online. If the plant, the raw-water pumps or the power feeding them fails, pressure can fall across the entire service area at once, and a precautionary boil notice tends to cover whole zones rather than the single street of a main break.

Main breaks and shutoffs in Roswell: the usual causes

Which failures hit Roswell hardest follows from its weather, its housing stock and how it is supplied.

• Freezing weather. Roswell sees about 49 days a year with a low at or below 32°F, and 3 days at or below 20°F. The coldest morning in the 2015 through 2025 record came on December 24, 2022. Frost pushes into shallow service lines first. Mains follow when the ground heaves and thaws, which is why break counts climb a day or two after the temperature swings.
• Flooding and heavy rain. NOAA logged 50 flood, flash flood and heavy rain reports in Fulton County from 2015 through 2026, and 10 days a year bring an inch of rain or more. Floodwater can undercut pipe crossings, swamp pump stations and overload treatment plants, and a notice to boil water often follows when it enters the system.
• Summer demand. Roswell has about 22 days a year at or above 95°F, and the hottest day in the record came on June 15, 2022. Lawn irrigation and cooling push demand to its yearly high, so pumps run hard, tanks drain faster than they refill and pressure sags on high ground in the evening.
• Storm-driven power loss. Thunderstorm wind, hail and tornado reports in Fulton County number 238 since 2015. Pump stations and treatment plants that depend on Georgia Power run on the electric grid, so a storm that downs power lines can lower water pressure even when no pipe is damaged.
• Younger pipe, different risks. Only 6.9% of occupied homes in Roswell predate 1970 (US 35.5%), so more of the network is newer plastic or ductile iron. Breaks tend to come from construction damage, pressure surges and weather rather than age.
• Digging and utility work. Street projects, fiber installation and excavation near buried pipe regularly cut mains in Roswell with no warning, usually on a day with perfectly ordinary weather.

Roswell weather and water-main stress, 2015–2025

Main break season in Roswell runs from late fall into early spring, with the coldest stretch around December through February.

Because this is gridded reanalysis data, individual hot and cold days can read a few degrees off what the airport recorded. The day counts and yearly patterns are the useful part.

Roswell boil water notices and EPA compliance record

Since 2015, EPA's record for Roswell shows no health-based violations. It also lists 1 monitoring or reporting entry that is about paperwork rather than water quality, such as a missed sample or a late report.

Most recent entries, all monitoring or reporting:

• May 2020: A coliform bacteria testing violation It is marked resolved.

Boil water notices in Roswell are precautions, not findings. When pressure drops, Fulton County Public Works tells affected customers to boil water until two rounds of lab tests are clean, a process that normally takes 24 to 48 hours after service is restored, under oversight from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD).

What the lead tests and housing age say about Roswell

The most recent 90th-percentile lead result filed for Roswell is 1.3 ppb (2025). The federal action level is 15 ppb, so that result is well under it.

6.9% of occupied homes in Roswell were built before 1970, and lead service lines and solder stayed legal until the federal ban in 1986. After any outage that disturbs the pipes, run the cold tap 30 seconds to 2 minutes before drinking, and ask Fulton County Public Works about its lead service line inventory.

How long a water outage lasts in Roswell

A crew that arrives at an ordinary main break in Roswell usually needs 4 to 8 hours to isolate the pipe, dig, repair, flush and restore pressure. Large transmission mains, deep pipes and breaks under busy streets can take a day or more. Roswell is a smaller system, so there are fewer crews on call and repairs can wait for parts or a contractor, especially at night and on weekends.

For a break that affects many customers, Fulton County Public Works usually posts an estimated restoration time. When you call, ask the dispatcher what the crew has told them.

Emergency water storage for Roswell households

The average household in Roswell has about 2.6 people, so FEMA's minimum of one gallon per person per day comes to roughly 8 gallons for three days and 36 gallons for two weeks.

• Do not forget the water heater: the tank holds roughly 30 to 50 gallons you can drink after it is switched off and allowed to cool.
• If a planned shutoff or storm is coming, fill the tub and some buckets for flushing toilets and washing; keep drinking water in clean sealed containers.

Water systems near Roswell, side by side

Water outage pages for nearby cities

Sandy Springs, GA · Johns Creek, GA · Atlanta, GA · Athens, GA