City or county water? How to tell who serves a Forsyth County address

Forsyth County, Georgia, has two public water utilities and two electric companies, and the mailing address does not tell you which ones serve a home. This is how to check, and how to start service, from the utilities’ own pages as we checked them on Oct. 19, 2026.

Who provides water in Forsyth County?

One of two public utilities. The Forsyth County Department of Water & Sewer has its business office at 2435 Freedom Parkway, Suite 1200, Cumming, GA 30041, open 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, per the county. Some addresses instead get water and sewer from the City of Cumming’s utility, Cumming Utilities, which also provides garbage service, per Cumming Utilities.

How do I tell which one serves my address?

Use three checks. First, Cumming Utilities publishes a Water and Sewer Service Area map. It is posted as map files with no written boundary, so you match the address on the map yourself. Second, ask the seller or landlord which utility sends the bill. Third, if you are still unsure, call Cumming Utilities at (770) 781-2020 or the county at (770) 781-2160.

Do not rely on the mailing city. A Cumming address does not mean a home is inside the City of Cumming: Sharon Forks Library, at 2820 Old Atlanta Road, Cumming, is in unincorporated Forsyth County, per the Census Bureau’s geocoder. The city covers about 7.2 square miles of land. City limits and the water service area are separate maps, so check the service area map itself.

How do I start county water service?

Submit a New Service Request with a copy of your driver’s license and a signed lease or purchase agreement, no more than two weeks before move-in, the county says. Then call (770) 781-2160 to schedule the connection and pay the deposit, by Visa or Mastercard. Connections happen Monday through Friday only, so a weekend move-in needs a weekday connection first.

Customers 62 and older can ask the county about a senior discount. The amount was not on the page we checked. For Cumming Utilities, the start-service steps were not on the page we checked either, so call (770) 781-2020.

Where does the county’s water come from?

Lake Lanier. Forsyth County has relied on a Lake Lanier water intake owned by the City of Cumming. It is now building its own intake, tunnel, pump station and transmission main, estimated at $188 million, with completion expected in 2031, per the county’s project page. The county does not say how the project will affect bills, and we do not guess.

Who provides electricity?

Either Sawnee EMC or Georgia Power, depending on the address. The county tells residents to report outages directly to whichever of the two serves them, on its 911 Center page.

Sawnee EMC serves parts of seven counties set by Georgia’s 1973 Territorial Act: Forsyth, Fulton, Dawson, Lumpkin, Cherokee, Hall and Gwinnett. To check whether an address is in its territory, email customerservice@sawnee.coop, Sawnee says. As of Aug. 31, 2026 it served 205,171 meters, including 102,175 in Forsyth County, per its facts page. Its headquarters is at 543 Atlanta Road, Cumming, and customer service is (770) 887-2363.

Sawnee began as Forsyth County Electric Membership Corporation, incorporated July 16, 1938, and took the Sawnee name in August 1950, after the mountain near its headquarters, per its history page. We did not check Georgia Power’s service map, so for an address outside Sawnee’s territory, ask the seller which company sends the bill.

How does natural gas work?

On the Atlanta Gas Light system, AGL owns the pipes but no longer sells gas. You buy gas from a state-certified natural gas marketer of your choice, and the Public Service Commission still regulates AGL’s delivery rates, per the PSC. The PSC publishes the list of approved marketers, so compare from that list.

SCANA Energy is the PSC-approved Regulated Provider. It serves low-income customers and customers who cannot get gas service from other marketers, the PSC says. Whether a given home has gas service at all is a question for the seller.

What should a buyer check before closing?

Four things: the water utility, the electric company, whether the home has gas, and who hauls the trash. Forsyth County does not provide curbside trash pickup, so outside the City of Cumming the seller or the HOA will have a private hauler. Ask the seller for the current providers, and a recent bill from each, before closing, so that you can line up the county’s two-week water window.

Gold Peach Realty, the North Georgia brokerage that publishes this guide, explains how it works with buyers on its Gold Peach experience page. Our move-in checklist puts utilities in order, and the utilities page keeps the phone numbers current.

• To start Forsyth County water and sewer service, submit a New Service Request with a copy of your driver's license and a signed lease or purchase agreement, no more than two weeks before move-in. Then call (770) 781-2160 to schedule the connection and pay the deposit. Connections happen Monday through Friday only. Forsyth County Department of Water & Sewer: Start, Stop or Restore Water Service
• Some addresses get water and sewer from the City of Cumming's utility, Cumming Utilities, rather than from the county. Cumming Utilities provides water, sewer and garbage service, publishes a Water and Sewer Service Area map, and is reached at (770) 781-2020. Cumming Utilities: Contact Us and Service Area Map pages
• Electricity in Forsyth County comes from either Sawnee EMC or Georgia Power, depending on the address. The county tells residents to report outages directly to whichever of the two serves them. Forsyth County 911 Center: When to Call 911 vs. the Non-Emergency Line
• On the Atlanta Gas Light system, Atlanta Gas Light owns the pipes but no longer sells gas to customers. You buy gas from a state-certified natural gas marketer of your choice; the Public Service Commission still regulates AGL's delivery rates. Georgia Public Service Commission: Natural Gas

Questions

Written by the Forsyth County Living Editorial Team. AI tools help us draft; people check every fact before it publishes.

Dates, rules and hours can change. The organizers have the final word: Forsyth County Government