Garland, Texas Water Outage Today

Who runs the water in Garland: system profile

City of Garland is the water system EPA lists for Garland, serving about 248,822 people. Customers know it as Garland Water Utilities; the name on your bill is the one to call.

Where Garland's tap water comes from

Garland does not collect its own raw water. City of Garland buys surface water from North Texas MWD Wylie WTP and distributes it through its own mains. Treatment points named in EPA's facility list include Plant - 817 E Centerville Rd. After treatment the water is held in 12 storage tanks and reservoirs and pushed uphill by 32 pump facilities; that storage is the buffer that keeps taps running for a few hours after a pump or main fails.

What this means in an outage. Problems can start outside the city: if North Texas MWD Wylie WTP has to shut a main or its plant, Garland can run short even though nothing is wrong with the local pipes. Follow alerts from the supplier and from Garland Water Utilities.

What causes water outages and low pressure in Garland

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

• Flooding and heavy rain. NOAA logged 180 flood, flash flood and heavy rain reports in Dallas County from 2015 through 2026, and 8 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.
• Freezing weather. Garland sees about 32 days a year with a low at or below 32°F, and 2 days at or below 20°F. The coldest morning in the 2015 through 2025 record came on February 16, 2021. The longest stretch with highs that never rose above freezing ran 6 days, ending February 18, 2021. 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.
• Summer demand. Garland has about 62 days a year at or above 95°F and 30 at or above 100°F, and the hottest day in the record came on August 18, 2023. 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 Dallas County number 410 since 2015. Pump stations and treatment plants that depend on Garland Power & Light 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 27.3% of occupied homes in Garland 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.
• Construction and third-party damage. A backhoe or boring crew that hits a main is among the most common reasons a single block goes dry without warning. Utilities handle those the same way as any break: isolate, repair, flush.

How weather strains the Garland water system

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

These counts come from a gridded reanalysis, which smooths out single-day extremes and can differ by a few degrees from an airport thermometer. Use them to compare seasons and years, not as official station records.

Is Garland water safe? Boil notices and EPA record

Since 2015, EPA's record for City of Garland shows no health-based violations. It also lists 2 monitoring or reporting entries that are about paperwork rather than water quality, such as a missed sample or a late report.

Most recent entries, all monitoring or reporting:

• December 2023: A lead consumer notice requirement It is marked resolved.
• April 2018: A missed or late disinfection byproduct monitoring sample It is marked resolved.

When Garland loses pressure after a break or a failed test, Garland Water Utilities 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 Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) supervises the process.

What the lead tests and housing age say about Garland

The most recent 90th-percentile lead result filed for City of Garland is 1.2 ppb (2025). The federal action level is 15 ppb, so that result is far from the limit.

27.3% of occupied homes in Garland 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 Garland Water Utilities about its lead service line inventory.

Restoration times for water outages in Garland

A crew that arrives at an ordinary main break in Garland 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.

For a break that affects many customers, Garland Water Utilities usually posts an estimated restoration time. When you call, ask the dispatcher what the crew has told them.

How much water to keep on hand in Garland

With about 3 people in the typical Garland home, FEMA's one-gallon-per-person-per-day rule means 9 gallons covers three days and 42 gallons covers two weeks.

• Heat: 62 days a year top 95°F here, so plan for more than the one-gallon minimum, and keep extra for pets.
• 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 Garland, side by side

Water outage pages for nearby cities

Plano, TX · Dallas, TX · Irving, TX · Grand Prairie, TX