Lake Murray guides, bait shops and others are concerned about the sale of SC Electric & Gas.

What can they expect if Dominion Energy buys the Lexington County-based power company and its control of the lake?

An unsettling experience in the upstate has some of them worried.

The Virginia utility which wants to buy SCE&G and its parent SCANA Corp. has been blamed for a muddy mess that shut down a public water system.

The Department of Health and Environmental Control says Dominion failed to control sediment near a 55-mile pipeline it built, The State newspaper reported.

This created problems for the Woodruff-Roebuck Public Water District’s more than 10,000 customers south of Spartanburg.

Sediment washing off the construction sites clogged creeks running into the South Tyger River.

In mid-April the system had to buy water from another utility because its mud-clogged intake pipe could not treat water.

Since SCANA sold its pipeline company to Dominion four years ago, the Virginia company has installed more pipes in South Carolina, including one near Lexington County.

Virginia and North Carolina officials are concerned over Dominion’s plans to build a massive natural gas pipeline in their states.

Dominion said its efforts to control erosion in Spartanburg were overwhelmed by heavy rain, spokeswoman Kristen Beckham said.

DHEC has not said if it will cite Dominion for polluting the river and streams.

Under state law, anyone clearing land must control mud on construction sites but oil and gas lines have some exemptions.

Shelley Robbins, an official with the environmental group Upstate Forever said of Dominion, “They were sloppy. They promised us they would adhere to the highest level of construction standards and care, and they did not.’’

Soil erosion is a major concern in South Carolina, where exposed earth can turn creeks red with mud after heavy rains.

Dominion left bare soil along the route for several months, Robbins said.