The Barrow County Water and Sewerage Authority was created in 1987 to serve the Northwest portion of Barrow County with water supplied by Gwinnett County.  Now the Authority has 3 service areas and is primarily supplied water from the Barrow County Bear Creek project.
In 1994 and 1996, a major water line expansion projects were constructed to provide water service to most of the authority service areas.
Also, in 1996 there were two 300,000 gallon storage tanks constructed to provide consistent system pressure.  In 2003, additional projects included an expansion of a water line from Cosby Road to Pleasant Hill Church Road to improve connectivity between the Northeastern and Southeastern service areas.
The customer base for the Authority in 2000 was approximately 1600 customer connections. In January of 2006, more 3750 customer are serviced by the retail water system installed and maintained by the Authority.   In 2003 and 2004 more than 500 new connections were made each year to the water supply system of the Authority.  Planning of the system considers 500 connections every year for the next five years.  The number of yearly connections could easily increase to 700 each year with expected growth.
The Water Authority personnel operates the Barrow County Transmission line from the Bear Creek Reservoir to the wholesale customers in Barrow County among which are: Barrow County Water Authority, City of Winder, City of Auburn, Town of Braselton and the City of Statham. Transmission line water usage has reached approximately 1.4 million gallons per day, which is 15.5 percent of the County’s available capacity in the Bear Creek Reservoir.