Bear Creek Water Association, Inc., is a non-profit, consumer-owner, association that provides public utility services to more than 12,000 water customers and more than 3,000 sewer customers in a 97 square mile service area in the rapidly urbanizing south Madison County region between the cities of Ridgeland to the south, Canton to the north, Flora to the west and Pearl River Reservoir to the east. The Association was formed by a small group of interested citizens in 1968 to serve what was then a rural area of some 30 square miles with scattered homes and farms between the cities of Canton and Madison along the recently constructed Interstate Highway 55 corridor. The original Bear Creek water system, funded with Farmers Home Administration loans, was built in 1971 and went into operation in late 1972 serving about 600 customers.

In the mid 1990's the Association acquired the privately-owned wastewater system in the Deerfield Subdivision, an area of about 0.6 square miles, and immediately started expanding public sewer service to other parts of its service area. With the availability of public fire protection water and sewer services, the Associations service area started a rapid transition from rural to urban and from an almost completely low density rural residential environment to a more mixed land use pattern of low to moderate density residential, commercial, and industrial uses. The Association currently provides public sewer to about 46 square miles of south Madison County, all of which is within the water system service area.