Will our Public Disservice Commissioners give Blue Granite what it wants?”

The out-of-state owners of the former Carolina Water Service seem to care little for their customers.
They are preparing to ask the Public Disservice Commission to do for them what they have been doing for years: Grant them ever more exorbitant water and sewer rates.
Carolina Water’s owners have changed their name to Blue Granite. Why? Possibly because the old names had such a bad connotation in South Carolina.
But changing your name makes little difference if you don’t change your ways.
Over many years, Carolina Water customers have complained not only about rates but poor quality water and frequently interrupted service.
As an Oak Grove homeowner, Jim Manning attended many Public Disservice Commission hearings on CWS’s rate requests.
The retired businessman told the Chronicle he felt the commissioners ignored what he and other customers had to say and granted what CWS wanted.
Now the company wants to raise its rates $11.7 million from $23.5 million to $35.2 million for a $3.7 million profit margin at its customers’ expense.
Blue Granite wants:
• An average residential rate hike of $7.71 from $14.38 to $22.09 a month, for water “supply” in service area 1. An identical 2nd increase in that areas for water “distribution.”
• To raise sewer rates in the 2 areas $36.22 a month from $65.08 to $101.302.
They wants 2 other water charges in service area 2:
• $9.99 a month more from $28.59 to $38.58 for “supply.”
• An identical 2nd increase for “distribution.”
In addition, it wants in both:
• $36.22 a month more from $65.08 to $101.30 for sewer “collection and treatment” but a decrease of $17.91 from $65.08 to $47.10 a month for sewer “collection” only.
Will our Public Disservice Commissioners go along with whatever Blue Granite asks?
This is another reason our lawmakers should do away with regulated monopolies.