About Cumming Utilities

For many years, Cumming and Forsyth County has been described as one of the fastest growing regions in the nation and this trend continues today. Clean water is a health priority, but it is also an economic necessity for quality growth. Our communities, schools, businesses and farms can’t operate without it.

Cumming Utilities leads the way in the region with our conservative approach to constructing state‐of-the‐art infrastructure and utilities while maintaining environmental integrity and financial stability. 

Some of the services provided by Cumming Utilities are as follows:

  • Customer Service and Billing
  • Development Plan Review and Inspections
  • Water and Sewer Engineering
  • Garbage Collection
  • Drinking Water Treatment
  • Drinking Water Distribution
  • Sanitary Sewer Treatment
  • Sanitary Sewer Collection
  • Storm Water Management
  • Cross Connection Control

See a picture of Cumming Fairgrounds below. This is the former site of the City’s sewage treatment lagoon that served the City for 40 years before it was decommissioned in the early 1990s

History

Cumming Utilities was established along with the City of Cumming by an act of the General Assembly of the State of Georgia in 1835. Initially, the City operated a series of wells that provided water to the downtown area. As the City grew, the need for good clean water also grew. The City then turned to surface water and built three small dams on local creeks and pumped the water to the City’s original water treatment facility built in the early 1940’s. The area grew slowly over the next 4 decades and the Cumming Water Production Facility saw three more upgrades; one in 1959, one in 1969, and one in 1979.

With the 1979 upgrade came the need for a more reliable drinking water source and the City secured its first Lake Lanier water withdrawal contract with the US Army Corps of Engineers. The decision to withdraw water from Lake Lanier could be the single most important decision made in Forsyth County’s history. Without a doubt, had the City failed to secure the withdrawal permit, Forsyth County would not be the prosperous county that it is today.

The City expanded the Cumming Water Production Facility in 1998 to 18 Million Gallons Per Day (MGD) and in 2007 to 24 MGD.

In 1998, Forsyth County made the decision to construct a drinking water treatment facility and requested to purchase raw water from the city via the City’s raw water intake facility on Lake Lanier. As a result of the excessive growth in the area, Forsyth County’s water demands have grown over the past couple of decades. Although many things have changed in Forsyth County, the City of Cumming continues to be the sole provider of raw water to the county.

The City plans to expand the Cumming Water Production Facility to 36 MGD to meet the demands predicted for our Water and Sewer Service Area by 2050.

Wastewater treatment began in the early 1960’s with the construction of the City’s oxidation pond on Castleberry Road in downtown Cumming (see picture of aerators in the City’s decommissioned sewage lagoon above). This pond is now the site of the Cumming Fairgrounds (see first picture above).

During the 80’s, growth skyrocketed and the City made the decision to construct a 2 Million Gallon per Day (MGD) Wastewater Treatment Facility on Bethelview Road. That state‐of‐the‐art facility has been expanded and today can treat and average of 8 MGD.

As growth continues, the City plans to construct a 7.5 MGD Advanced Water Reclamation Facility (AWRF) that will discharge highly treated wastewater back into Lake Lanier. This new facility will contain advanced technology such as membrane filters and will meet all state and federal lake water quality standards.