Image of Bellwood Quarry. Credits – Gemini
The completed system expanded that reserve to more than 30 days, according to PC Construction project . The reservoir can hold 2.4 billion U.S. gallons, or about 9.1 billion litres, the Department of Watershed Management said. In 2020, Atlanta began filling Bellwood Quarry, a century-old granite pit just west of downtown, with river water. The reservoir holds some 2.4 billion US gallons or nearly 9.1 billion litres, the Department of Watershed Management said. The reserve was designed to provide more than 30 days of emergency raw water and potentially up to 90 days with conservation measures. Water began flowing into Bellwood Quarry on April 17, 2020, and the program was completed in December 2020. The converted quarry provides approximately 2.4 billion gallons of raw-water storage. In August 2025, Winder and Auburn announced plans to convert a former quarry in Auburn into a one-billion-gallon reservoir, according to the City of Winder. One segment is a tunnel through solid rock 10.5 feet wide and eventually extended to about 15,000 feet. At the river end, a 30-foot-square, 350-foot-deep shaft functioned as the point of egress for the boring machine. The project increased Atlanta’s water storage capacity approximately tenfold and received Engineering News-Record Best Project recognition in 2020.
Because excavation has already created a large basin, quarries can offer potential sites for water storage.
The construction, according to contractor Clark Construction , is to connect the quarry to the Hemphill pump station and to a site adjacent to the Chattahoochee. The majority of people only consider city water when something goes wrong. Water emerges from the tap when you turn it on, while the storage tanks, pipes and pumps remain out of sight. But Atlanta has always had a subtle weakness. The fix was a hole in the earth. It gives Atlanta a substantial buffer if its normal water supply is disrupted. The river and the quarry are connected via tunnels of solid rock. The system is bi-directional. Raw water is piped from the river down the tunnel into the quarry and is used untreated. In an emergency, it flows via the tunnel to the Hemphill Water Treatment Plant, is cleansed and sent out to taps like any other supply.
Before the Water Supply Program, Atlanta had about three days of emergency raw-water reserves.
Atlanta’s approximately $320 million Water Supply Program was completed in December 2020. The quarry is the centrepiece of Westside Park, a 280-acre green space that the city identifies as Atlanta’s largest park. The place is a restricted drinking water reservoir, and the government restricts any recreational use due to the potential for pollution.
Visitors should not expect a swimming lake. Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management warns that active pumps can pull a person underwater and into the pumping system. Visitors must stay out of the restricted reservoir area and away from the pumps; swimming, boating and other recreational activities are prohibited.