If a line is down on the ground right now, stop reading. Call Georgia Power at 1-888-891-0938 or dial 911. If you are a Colquitt EMC member, call (855) 293-1804. Then keep everyone — including pets — well away from it until someone from the utility arrives.
“Always assume a downed power line is live and life-threatening.” … “Do not attempt to remove tree limbs or any other object from a downed line.”
Georgia Power, Outages & Storm Center
That is the utility telling you, in its own words, not to do the thing almost everyone instinctively wants to do.
Everything below is for the situation that is not an active emergency: a limb resting on a wire, a tree growing into the line, a branch rubbing the cable that runs to your house. Who is responsible for cutting it, who pays, and why a tree company may tell you they legally cannot touch it until the power company shows up.
We looked up the actual rules — Georgia Power’s own published policies and tariff, the Georgia Code, and the federal safety standards that govern tree work near conductors. Section numbers and direct quotes are below, along with a list of the things we could not confirm and are not going to guess at.
First question: which wire is it?
Almost every argument about who pays comes down to this, and most homeowners have never been told there is a difference.
| Service drop | Distribution line | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | From the last pole to your house | From pole to pole along the street |
| Typical voltage | 120/240 volts | Much higher — thousands of volts |
| Who owns it | Georgia Power, up to the splice at your house | Georgia Power, entirely |
| Feeds | Only your property | Your whole neighbourhood |
Georgia Power’s BlueBook for Electrical Service defines the service drop as:
“The overhead service conductors from the last pole or other aerial support to and including the splices, if any, connecting to the service entrance conductors at the building or other structure.”
Georgia Power BlueBook for Electrical Service, §1.0
And the service point — the boundary itself — as “the point of connection between the Company’s facilities and the Customer’s facilities.”
In plain terms: the wire belongs to Georgia Power up to and including the splice at your house. From that splice inward, it is yours.
The equipment on your wall is yours, not theirs
This surprises people every single storm season. Georgia Power states it plainly:
“The meter socket belongs to the customer. In the event it is damaged during a storm or other instances, the repair of the meter socket is the customer’s responsibility.”
Georgia Power, After-Storm Safety & Recovery
The same page lists what counts as customer-side damage after a storm:
- Service wires down
- Bent mast pipe
- Damaged or missing weatherhead
- Service entrance pulled from house
- Damaged meter base
And the consequence:
“This connection must be repaired by a certified electrician before we can restore power to your home.”
Georgia Power, After-Storm Safety & Recovery
So if a falling limb rips the mast off the side of your house, Georgia Power will not simply reconnect it. A licensed electrician has to rebuild that assembly first, and only then does the utility come back to reconnect. That is two separate trades and two separate visits, and it is the single most common reason a house stays dark for days after everyone else on the street has power.
Georgia Power’s own page directs customers to call 1-877-749-3931 “to initiate reconnection and request reimbursement.” We could not confirm the conditions of that reimbursement or whether it results in payment — but the number is published by the utility and it costs nothing to ask.
What Georgia Power does for free
Georgia Power runs its own vegetation programme, at no charge to you, on its own schedule. Its published description covers “pruning and removing trees, cutting brush and applying herbicides to prevent vegetation from interrupting your service.”
Residential trees are pruned “on a planned cycle to reduce outages caused by downed trees or limbs.” The important word there is cycle. Crews work an entire circuit at a time rather than responding to individual requests, which is why calling to ask them to come and trim your one tree usually does not produce a visit.
On pruning method, the company says it uses “directional trimming to remove limbs at strong branches or the trunk,” which “protect[s] the tree’s natural defense mechanisms” and “reduces re-growth.” That is why utility-pruned trees often look lopsided — it is deliberate, not carelessness.
“Georgia Power prunes trees according to standards…developed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA).” … “We comply with the National Electric Safety Code (NESC).”
Georgia Power, Tree & Vegetation Management FAQs
And what Georgia Power will not do
This is the line that decides who is paying, and it is refreshingly specific:
“Substantial tree work, including tree removals and limb removals over 3″ in diameter, is the responsibility of the property owner.”
Georgia Power, Tree & Vegetation Management — Contact
Three inches. That is the number. Go and look at the limb you are worried about. If it is thicker than a broom handle at the point where it would need to come off, that is your job, not theirs.
Two more limits from the same page:
- On the service drop, contractors will handle “pruning limbs substantially rubbing on the wire or deflecting the wire path” — that is minor clearance work, not removal.
- “Contractors will cut vines pulling down on the wire, however vines will not be removed due to safety precautions for our workers.”
- “After storm events, any vegetation debris cleanup is the responsibility of the property owner.”
If a Georgia Power contractor damages something while working, the company states that “the contractor company representing Georgia Power…will be responsible for repairs.”
One correction worth making
You will find blog posts claiming Georgia Power has a “15-foot rule” for planting under power lines. The rule exists, but read what it actually says:
“Generally, shrubs, gardens, grasses, and trees with a mature height of less than 15 feet are permitted on the easement area, as long as they don’t restrict access to the area and do not threaten the continued safe operation of the transmission line.”
Georgia Power, Land & Tree Management
That is a transmission right-of-way rule — the big steel-tower corridors — not the ordinary distribution line running down a residential street. We could not find any published height rule from Georgia Power for distribution easements. If someone quotes you 15 feet for the wire in front of your house, they are applying the wrong rule.
Why your tree company legally cannot touch it
This is the part homeowners find hardest to accept, and it is not a tree company being difficult. It is federal law, an industry safety standard, and a Georgia criminal statute stacked on top of each other.
The federal rule: ten feet
OSHA defines line-clearance tree trimming as work “near (within 10 feet of) energized power lines.” For workers who are not qualified line-clearance trimmers — which is most ordinary tree crews — the governing rule is 29 CFR 1910.333(c)(3)(i):
“the person and the longest conductive object he or she may contact cannot come closer to any unguarded, energized overhead line than the following distances: For voltages to ground 50kV or below — 10 ft. (305 cm)…”
29 CFR 1910.333(c)(3)(i)
Note the phrase “the longest conductive object he or she may contact.” That is not ten feet from the worker’s body. It is ten feet from the tip of the pole saw, the end of the rope, the top of the ladder.
OSHA’s enforcement directive on tree care confirms which standard applies to an ordinary tree company:
“Section 1910.333 applies if the tree trimming or removal is performed by other types of employees.”
OSHA Directive CPL 02-01-045, Citation Guidance Related to Tree Care and Tree Removal Operations
The industry standard: assume everything is live
The tree care industry’s own safety standard, ANSI Z133-2017, is blunt about it:
“Arborists not qualified by training and experience to work within 10 feet (3.05 m) of electrical conductors shall maintain at all times the minimum approach distances (MAD) shown in Table 1, measured radially.”
ANSI Z133-2017, §4.1.7
And on assumptions:
“The employer shall train each employee that all overhead and underground electrical conductors, guy wires, pole grounds, and communication wires and cables shall be considered energized with potentially fatal voltages.”
ANSI Z133-2017, §4.1.2
And the Georgia statute almost nobody knows about
Georgia has its own High-voltage Safety Act, at OCGA §§ 46-3-30 through 46-3-40. It is short, it is specific, and it carries criminal penalties.
“No person, firm, or corporation shall commence any work … if at any time any person or any item … may be brought within ten feet of any high-voltage line unless and until: (1) The person responsible for the work has given the notice required by Code Section 46-3-34; and (2) The owner or operator of such high-voltage line has effectively guarded against danger from accidental contact by either deenergizing and grounding the line, relocating it, or installing protective covering or mechanical barriers…”
OCGA § 46-3-33
The notice period is set by § 46-3-34: at least 72 hours, excluding weekends and holidays, before work begins.
And the penalties, at § 46-3-40, are worth reading twice:
“Any person responsible for the work who violates any of the provisions of this part shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be liable for a fine of $1,000.00 for a first offense and $3,000.00 for a second or subsequent offense.”
OCGA § 46-3-40(a)
“Any person responsible for the work who violates the requirements of Code Section 46-3-33 and whose subsequent activities within the vicinity of high-voltage lines result in damage to utility facilities or result in injury or damage to person or property shall be strictly liable for said injury or damage. Any such person shall also indemnify the owner or operator of such high-voltage lines against all claims…”
OCGA § 46-3-40(b)
Strictly liable means fault does not have to be proven. Indemnify means paying the utility’s claims as well as your own. That is the exposure a tree company takes on if it cuts a corner near a line — and it is why any competent crew will insist on waiting for the utility.
One honest nuance about your service drop
The statute defines a high-voltage line, at § 46-3-32(1), as one “having a voltage in excess of 750 volts between conductors or from any conductor to ground.”
A standard residential service drop runs at 120/240 volts. Read literally, it sits below that threshold, so the Act’s notification requirement is aimed at the distribution line overhead rather than the wire to your meter.
Do not take that as permission to touch it. OSHA’s ten-foot rule and the Z133 standard still apply to any crew regardless of voltage, and 240 volts across a wet ladder will still kill a person. The distinction is legally interesting and practically irrelevant to your safety.
There is a second nuance in the same statute. “Work” is defined at § 46-3-32(6) as an activity done “by a person or entity in pursuit of his trade or business.” A homeowner with a pole saw is outside that definition — which is not a loophole in your favour. The law regulates the professional because the professional is supposed to know better. Your exposure is not a fine. It is electrocution.
The 72-hour rule — how the work actually gets done
When a tree genuinely has to come out and it is close to the service drop, the sequence is this:
- A tree company assesses the tree and confirms the wire has to be dropped for the work to be done safely.
- Someone calls Georgia Power to schedule a service wire disconnect.
- Georgia Power sends a crew to disconnect the service drop.
- The tree company does the work with the wire dead.
- Georgia Power returns to reconnect.
The number and the lead time are published:
“Should the service wire need to be disconnected to safely conduct this tree work, please contact us at 1-888-660-5890 to schedule a minimum of 72 hours in advance.”
Georgia Power, Tree & Vegetation Management — Contact
Seventy-two hours is three days. It is not a phone call that gets someone out this afternoon, and no tree company can shorten it. Plan around it — and notice that it lines up neatly with the 72-hour statutory notice under § 46-3-34.
We could not confirm whether Georgia Power charges for this disconnect. There is no published fee schedule and no statement that it is free. Ask when you call rather than assuming either way.
If you are on Colquitt EMC instead
Not everyone in Lowndes County is a Georgia Power customer. Colquitt EMC serves parts of the area and has a Valdosta office alongside Tifton, Adel, Nashville and Quitman. Check your bill if you are not sure which one you are on — the rules are not identical.
Colquitt EMC publishes its right-of-way widths in its Service Rules and Regulations:
“a minimum of thirty feet for overhead lines and a minimum of twenty feet for underground lines”
Colquitt EMC, Service Rules & Regulations
Members are required to keep those areas “free of obstructions, hazards, trees, shrubs, structures, and infrastructures,” and to provide “an access point at or on their property at least ten feet wide with a minimum overhead clearance of fifteen feet.”
Their outage and hazard number is (855) 293-1804, and they specifically ask members to report trees growing into lines, sagging lines, and leaning poles.
One honest gap: Colquitt EMC does not publish a vegetation management policy that we could find — no trim cycle, no statement of what they will or will not cut. If you are a member, the only reliable answer is to call and ask.
Grinding the stump means calling 811. Pruning does not.
Once the tree is down, the stump raises a separate legal requirement that has nothing to do with power lines overhead — and almost everyone gets this wrong.
Georgia’s Utility Facility Protection Act defines excavation at OCGA § 25-9-3(15)(A):
“‘Excavating’ means any operation using mechanized equipment or explosives to move earth, rock, or other material below existing grade. Such term shall include, but shall not be limited to, augering, blasting, boring, digging, ditching, dredging, drilling, driving-in, grading, plowing-in, ripping, scraping, trenching, and tunneling.”
OCGA § 25-9-3(15)(A)
And the same Code section states directly that “stump removal shall be considered excavation.”
So the distinction is clean:
| Job | 811 ticket needed? |
|---|---|
| Pruning limbs | No — nothing goes below grade |
| Felling a tree | No — by itself |
| Grinding or pulling the stump | Yes |
The notice period is a minimum of two business days, tickets are good for 30 calendar days, and hand-digging with “minimally intrusive excavation methods” is exempt. Penalties under the Act run up to $10,000 per violation, plus strict liability for repair costs and any resulting injury or damage.
A note on precision: the penalty provisions appear to have been renumbered — some sources cite § 25-9-13 and others § 25-9-14. We have not been able to establish which is current, so we are citing the Act rather than a pinpoint section.
If your tree takes out their equipment, who pays?
Two separate answers, and they can both apply.
The contract answer
Georgia Power’s filed Rules and Regulations tariff says:
“All property of the Company that is placed in or upon the customer’s premises, and used in supplying service to the customer, is placed there under the customer’s protection. The cost for any loss or damage to such property, normal wear and tear excepted, shall be payable by the customer.”
Georgia Power Rules and Regulations tariff, §A¶14
The negligence answer
Separately, Georgia law asks whether you should have known the tree was dangerous. The Court of Appeals set that standard in Cornett v. Agee, 143 Ga. App. 55 (1977):
“there is no duty to consistently and constantly check all pine trees for non-visible rot as the manifestation of decay must be visible, apparent, and patent so that one could be aware that high winds might combine with visible rot and cause damage.”
Cornett v. Agee, 143 Ga. App. 55 (1977)
That standard was reaffirmed in Wade v. Howard, 232 Ga. App. 55 (1998), which quotes Willis v. Maloof for the rule that a tree owner is liable only if he “knew or reasonably should have known the tree was diseased, decayed or otherwise constituted a dangerous condition.”
The practical point is about evidence rather than protection. What a homeowner “reasonably should have known” is established by what was visible — and a dated written assessment, with photographs, is a record of exactly that. It does not immunise anyone. It creates proof.
We have written about that standard in more detail in our guide to who pays when a tree falls in Georgia.
Your six-step checklist
- Is anything on the ground or arcing? Stop. Georgia Power 1-888-891-0938 or 911. Colquitt EMC (855) 293-1804. Keep everyone back.
- Work out which wire it is. Pole to your house is the service drop. Pole to pole is distribution.
- Measure the limb. Over three inches in diameter and it is your responsibility, not the utility’s.
- Get an assessment before anyone climbs. A crew has to know whether the wire must be dropped before they can quote the job honestly.
- Schedule the disconnect early. 1-888-660-5890, minimum 72 hours. Ask whether there is a charge.
- If the stump is coming out, file an 811 locate. Two business days minimum. Stump removal is excavation under Georgia law.
Who to call
| Situation | Number |
|---|---|
| Downed or damaged line (Georgia Power) | 1-888-891-0938 or 911 |
| Report an outage (Georgia Power) | 1-888-891-0938, or text OUT to 42797 |
| Schedule a service wire disconnect for tree work | 1-888-660-5890 (72 hours minimum) |
| Reconnection after an electrician repairs your service entrance | 1-877-749-3931 |
| Colquitt EMC outage or hazard | (855) 293-1804 |
| Colquitt EMC main office | (229) 985-3620 or (800) 342-8694 |
| Georgia 811 locate request | Dial 811 |
| City of Valdosta Arbor Division | 229-259-3530 |
| Pro Tree Service Valdosta GA | (229) 354-8284 |
What we could not verify
- Whether the 72-hour service disconnect carries a fee. No published price and no statement that it is free.
- Any Georgia Power height rule for distribution easements. The 15-foot rule appears only in a transmission context on every page where we found it.
- Colquitt EMC’s vegetation management policy — trim cycle, what they cut, whether it is free. No such page exists on their site.
- Whether Georgia Power will remove a tree that threatens only your own service drop. The three-inch rule strongly implies not, but there is no direct statement.
- The conditions of the reimbursement referenced at 1-877-749-3931.
- The current section number for GUFPA penalties (§ 25-9-13 versus § 25-9-14 — the chapter appears to have been renumbered).
- Which parts of Lowndes County are Colquitt EMC territory rather than Georgia Power. No published map. Check your bill.
- Whether the City of Valdosta’s tree removal permit applies to residential properties. The Arbor Division publishes nothing about trees near utility lines, and we have not read the Land Development Regulations directly on the residential question. Call 229-259-3530.
This page is general information, not legal advice, and not a substitute for the utility’s own instructions. Rules, numbers and fees change. If a government or utility source contradicts anything here, that source is right and we will correct this page.
Sources
- Georgia Power — Tree & Vegetation Management, Contact, Land & Tree Management, FAQs
- Georgia Power — Outages & Storm Center and After-Storm Safety & Recovery
- Georgia Power — BlueBook for Electrical Service and Rules and Regulations tariff
- OCGA §§ 46-3-30 to 46-3-40 — Georgia High-voltage Safety Act
- OCGA § 25-9-3 — Georgia Utility Facility Protection Act definitions
- 29 CFR 1910.333 and OSHA Directive CPL 02-01-045
- OSHA eTool — Line-Clearance Tree Trimming Operations
- ANSI Z133-2017, Safety Requirements for Arboricultural Operations, §§ 4.1.2 and 4.1.7
- Colquitt EMC — Service Rules & Regulations and Outage Center
- Wade v. Howard, 232 Ga. App. 55 (1998), quoting Cornett v. Agee and Willis v. Maloof
- City of Valdosta — Arbor Division