Clarksville, Tennessee Water Outage Today

Clarksville water system at a glance

The system behind most taps in Clarksville is Clarksville Water Department, which EPA records list as serving roughly 251,864 people. Customers know it as Clarksville Gas & Water; the name on your bill is the one to call.

Source water and treatment in Clarksville

Tap water in Clarksville starts as surface water. Clarksville Water Department takes it from Cumberland Rvr and runs it through treatment before it reaches the mains. Treatment points named in EPA's facility list include Cumberland R. Plant. After treatment the water is held in 14 storage tanks and reservoirs, which is the buffer that keeps taps running for a few hours after a pump or main fails.

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.

What causes water outages and low pressure in Clarksville

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

• Freezing weather. Clarksville sees about 74 days a year with a low at or below 32°F, and 13 days at or below 20°F. The coldest morning in the 2015 through 2025 record came on December 19, 2016. The longest stretch with highs that never rose above freezing ran 9 days, ending February 19, 2021. Frozen service lines and meters cause single-address outages, while ground frost and thaw cycles crack older mains and produce the street-wide breaks.
• Flooding and heavy rain. NOAA logged 37 flood, flash flood and heavy rain reports in Montgomery County from 2015 through 2026, and 11 days a year bring an inch of rain or more. High water can wash out the ground under buried pipe, flood pump stations and push treatment plants past their limits, which is why boil notices so often follow a flood.
• Younger pipe, different risks. Only 14.8% of occupied homes in Clarksville 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.
• Storm-driven power loss. Thunderstorm wind, hail and tornado reports in Montgomery County number 127 since 2015. Pump stations and treatment plants that depend on CDE Lightband run on the electric grid, so a storm that downs power lines can lower water pressure even when no pipe is damaged.
• Digging and utility work. Street projects, fiber installation and excavation near buried pipe regularly cut mains in Clarksville with no warning, usually on a day with perfectly ordinary weather.
• Planned shutoffs and a problem at one address. Valve replacements and new connections are announced ahead, often with door hangers. If neighbors have water, check your own shutoff valve, meter and pressure regulator before calling.

Clarksville weather and water-main stress, 2015–2025

Main break season in Clarksville 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.

Clarksville boil water notices and EPA compliance record

Since 2015, EPA's record for Clarksville Water Department shows no health-based violations.

When Clarksville loses pressure after a break or a failed test, Clarksville Gas & Water asks affected customers to boil water for drinking and cooking. The notice ends only after samples come back clean, which usually takes one to two days after service returns, and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) supervises the process.

Lead service lines and old plumbing in Clarksville

The most recent 90th-percentile lead result filed for Clarksville Water Department is 1 ppb (2025). The federal action level is 15 ppb, so that result is well under it.

14.8% of occupied homes in Clarksville 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 Clarksville Gas & Water about its lead service line inventory.

Restoration times for water outages in Clarksville

Most repairs of an ordinary main break in Clarksville take half a day once the crew is on site. Bigger mains, deep bury and busy roads stretch that to a day or more. With 251,864 people on the system, a break on a main that feeds a whole district can leave thousands of homes dry at once, and crews may close valves several blocks away to isolate it.

Clarksville Gas & Water will post an estimated restoration time for a break that affects many customers; ask for the repair crew's estimate when you call.

How much water to keep on hand in Clarksville

The average household in Clarksville 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.

• A standard water heater is a ready-made 40-gallon reserve. Shut off its power or gas, open a hot tap somewhere in the house, and draw from the drain valve.
• Fill a tub or large containers early for toilets, cleaning and handwashing, and store drinking water separately in clean bottles.

Water systems near Clarksville, side by side

Water outage pages for nearby cities

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