The Laurens County Water and Sewer Commission doesn’t need to buy much water from Clinton now, as its Lake Greenwood Water Treatment Plant has come on-line and its agreement with Greenville Water System serves fast growing Northern Laurens County.
But the LCWSC board has agreed to a water-purchase agreement with the City of Clinton to supply one need - to customers along Hwy 56 north of Clinton, including the Musgrove Mill State Historic Site.
Before the Lake Greenwood plant, Clinton and the Laurens CPW, with Greenville, were the LCWSC water-for-resale suppliers. Now, Laurens CPW and Lake Rabon are basically out of the mix, although LCWSC is continuing to negotiate a water-purchase agreement there, also. The Clinton agreement makes the commission basically an “industrial customer” of the city’s water system, according to LCWSC Executive Director Jeff Field.
He told the commission’s board Tuesday morning that LCWSC picks up the City of Clinton water near the Blue Ocean restaurant and pumps it north for rural customers. These are just a few of the 16,076 billed-customers on the LCWSC wide-ranging water system. It’s basically too far for the commission to pump Lake Greenwood water from Joanna to Hwy 56 North without more customers to serve. So, the commission and the city negotiated a water-sales contract - it is a much lower rate than LCWSC used to pay for Clinton water that it resold. LCWSC also provides sewer service to a portion of Clinton in the Lydia Mill area.
LCWSC and Clinton had a 10-year contract that expired, and this will be another 10-year contract. Under a separate agreement that has not yet been written, LCWSC will be able to buy Clinton water in case of an emergency.
Field said it would work the other way, too. One of the LCWSC’s long-range plans is to upgrade to a 1 million gallon tank behind the Laurens County Hospital, and Field said that reserve could be tapped by Clinton in case of an emergency.
LCWSC will pay $5.71 per 1,000 gallons of water with a @329 per month meter for the Hwy 56 water. That’s a change from $10.11 per 1,000 that LCWSC was paying - a figure that Field said was “on the high side” when compared to water purchases from Laurens CPW and Greenville.
Field said the Clinton City Council also has authorized the contract.
“We pay their industrial rate,” Field said of the new agreement. “Any rate increase is the same as what they impose on their customers.”
The Lake Greenwood Water Treatment Plant pumped 2.2 million gallons of water in August, divided about 50-50 between distributions lines on Hwy 72, toward Joanna, and Hwy 221, toward Laurens. The board also agreed to buy land at the plant site, 4.72 acres for $40,000 that will be an additional buffer area for the plant site.
The commission previously had paid $60,000 for a portion of this land, on Good Hope Church Road in Waterloo, when it was considered for an entrance to the plant.
Eventually, the land was used for a construction entrance, but the main, gated entrance is on Hwy 221.
The board also was told that the LCWSC’s 3-year water system management agreement with the Town of Gray Court will be up for a vote in November and is in renegotiation. Field said the commission has just applied for a sewer construction grant for Gray Court in a proposed $10 million project.
Also, Field said, work will begin soon on a new water tank for Hickory Tavern, which is a Capital Projects Sales Tax project, and a groundbreaking could be scheduled as soon as next week. The commission has installed 70 new water taps so far this year - 27 in August - and 5 wastewater taps; the board was told 9 more wastewater tap requests came in from the Durbin Meadows development on Monday.
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