York County still mulling Carolina Water contract for Lake Wylie

Months after county officials began looking into it, few details are available on the possibility of ending contracts with Carolina Water Service in Lake Wylie.

The franchise agreement between Carolina Water and York County expires in January 2017.

Seven months ago in January this year, community members began calling for the county to let the contract expire, pay whatever cost an independent appraiser sets and run the utility as the county does elsewhere. On Jan. 29, county manager Bill Shanahan began reviewing the agreement with plans to have a recommendation ready a month or two later.

“It’s a year out,” he said at the time. “Basically what we’re going to do is understand what our options are.”

Now, Shanahan said there still isn’t a staff recommendation on whether to extend the contract. He doesn’t know when it will come to York County Council, which has final say on the decision.

“As with anything this size, the sooner the better,” Shanahan said. “No actual date available.”

Main factors in the decision are costs, though Shanahan said he does “not know the cost at this time” for the county to assume and operate the system. Several factors remain to be determined.

“Cost to bring the system up to county specifications, cost of operations and maintenance, cost to run the system,” Shanahan said.

Shanahan said options are to renew the contract as-is, modify it to let Carolina Water continue in the area or have the county run the system. Another outside group isn’t part of the equation. The decision will impact Lake Wylie customers, but not others on the Carolina Water system in York County.

“The franchise agreement refers only to the Lake Wylie customers of Carolina Water Service,” Shanahan said.

Councilman Bruce Henderson said residents shouldn’t take a lack of public details as inactivity on the issue. Negotiations are ongoing, but Henderson said it’s “unpredictable” whether a proposal could come to Council in the next meeting or two, or several months from now.

Henderson’s stance on Carolina Water is much firmer.

“I have called for the elimination of the contract,” he said. “I think it’s going to boil down to what they come up with and what negotiations they present.”

As with other issues, the dollars and cents of a deal must work out to make it viable, he said. But the county is taking seriously the possibility of running the system after January.

“We’re aggressively trying to get that thing gone to where the county can have control,” Henderson said.

Customers say

Residents have expressed frustrations with Carolina Water and a desire to get rid of the system in various public settings, dating back several years. Main concerns have been the cost of water, water quality and customer service. Lake Wylie Pilot readers responded on Facebook generating the same opinions.

“Let the county take over,” said Julia Jordan. “There would be initial investment but they would more than recover the funds and our county would be in control of our water.”

Jordan called the current water service setup “ridiculous.”

“It's ridiculous now to have Rock Hill sell water to the county who then sells it to Carolina Water, who then charges excessive rates when they sell it to us who are forced to buy from them,” she said.

Ed Min agreed.

“They are overpriced and customer service is terrible,” he said. “They know we have no options so I vote to have the county take charge and get this back under control.”

Jason Habbal took the same opinion.

“Even a government agency can’t possibly do a worse job than Carolina Water Service has done,” he said.

Allison Love, whose win in the Republican primary this summer means she will represent the Lake Wylie area on York County Council in January, met with county officials for an update on the issue and said her concerns are the same as residents.

“I have same concerns as the people who are customers of Carolina Water,” she said. “I had their service for 22 years as a River Hills resident. Always disappointing!”

Love said she will work toward resolving the issue “efficiently and effectively for all.”

This story was originally published July 8, 2016 at 11:48 AM with the headline "York County still mulling Carolina Water contract for Lake Wylie."