{"id":758477,"date":"2026-07-12T12:08:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T12:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/758477\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T12:08:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T12:08:30","slug":"north-georgia-town-struggles-with-low-water-pressure-as-drought-strains-system-wsb-tv-channel-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/758477\/","title":{"rendered":"North Georgia town struggles with low water pressure as drought strains system \u2013 WSB-TV Channel 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

LULA, Ga. \u2014 Residents in the North Georgia town of Lula have been unable to drink their tap water for nearly a week as city leaders work to address low water pressure and a boil water advisory.<\/p>\n

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City officials say a combination of oppressive heat, drought conditions and increased water usage strained the town\u2019s water system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city has had tremendous water demand,\u201d Interim City Manager Jerry Neace said.<\/p>\n

Neace planned to address the issue during a town hall meeting Tuesday evening, where he was expected to discuss drought conditions, low water tables and how Lula plans to avoid similar problems in the future.<\/p>\n

For residents like Carol Sargent, the boil water advisory has been a challenge.<\/p>\n

The kitchen faucet still flows, but not with the pressure she is used to. She has been boiling water for several days, following the city\u2019s recommendation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard for me because I have problems picking up that big ol\u2019 pot that I have,\u201d Sargent said.<\/p>\n

She has also been buying bottled water.<\/p>\n

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Sargent said she first noticed water pressure dropping over the Fourth of July weekend as a heat wave settled over the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had quite a bit of usage for the month of June,\u201d Neace said.<\/p>\n

Lula, which has a population of about 3,000 people, relies on well water stored in two tanks. Neace said one of those tanks went completely dry Sunday.<\/p>\n

According to Neace, water demand in June increased by more than one million gallons.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people have been watering outside because we\u2019ve not had a lot of rain, so they\u2019re watering their lawns, watering their gardens, keeping their pools filled,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Lula can tap into the Gainesville water system, but Neace said the interconnection is too small to fully meet the town\u2019s needs during situations like this.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working with the City of Gainesville to upsize that and remedy that issue should we have this situation again,\u201d Neace said.<\/p>\n

Even with the low water levels, Neace said there has been no sign of contamination.<\/p>\n

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Still, the situation has been a nuisance for residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to get the water you can up to boil it, to wash your clothes, take your showers,\u201d Sargent said.<\/p>\n

Neace said the city plans to install two new wells within the next year and build another elevated water tank within the next three to five years.<\/p>\n

He said the tanks are filling back up with assistance from Gainesville and expects water pressure to return to normal by next week.<\/p>\n

\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LULA, Ga. \u2014 Residents in the North Georgia town of Lula have been unable to drink their tap…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":758478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[38722,186056,221982,324814,76384,192,83201,324815,3729,43191,215450,191904,79,33927],"class_list":["post-758477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-brian","tag-brian_mimms","tag-brian_mims","tag-carol_sargeant","tag-channel_2","tag-environment","tag-gainesville","tag-jerry_neese","tag-local","tag-lula","tag-main_street","tag-north_georgia","tag-science","tag-wsbsyndication"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}