Irmo wants to buy out Blue Granite sewer over ‘evil’ billing, mayor says
The town of Irmo is looking to buy out the company handling many residents’ sewer service, and the mayor says the sewer system could be condemned if it isn’t turned over to the town.
Irmo Town Council will vote in April on whether to commission a feasibility study on buying the sewer system operated by Blue Granite Water Co., which serves thousands of customers inside and outside the town limits.
Mayor Barry Walker said he hopes the company is open to a “friendly” sale, but if not, the town could “hostilely” take over the sewer system, Walker said.
“They have not treated our customers correctly,” Walker said.
Walker criticized Blue Granite’s fixed-price billing for sewer customers in the area, saying it was creating too much of a burden for some Irmo residents.
“That’s fine if you’re a big family that uses a lot of water,” Walker said of the company’s billing system. “But if you’re a grandmother who lives alone, you might pay $20 for water and $85 for sewer. That’s flat out evil.”
The company had been encouraged by state regulators to study whether to switch to a billing system based on the water volume used during Blue Granite’s most recent application for a rate hike last year. That would create more of an equivalence between the prices customers pay for water and sewer, Walker said.
A Blue Granite spokesman said the company is aware of problems with the “extremely old” system serving Irmo customers, but a company like Blue Granite that operates in multiple parts of the state is better positioned to address those issues than the town.
”The company has a multiyear, multimillion-dollar capital investment plan to address design and infrastructure issues,” said spokesman Dave Wilson.
Responding to Walker’s concerns, Wilson said homes in the Irmo area aren’t metered to bill by volume, and placing such meters could add millions more to any upgrade. The rate structure approved last year by the S.C. Public Service Commission is meant to spread out costs across the state, Wilson said.
Last year, Blue Granite sponsored a volunteer clean-up effort along Rawls Creek in the Friarsgate community to improve drainage, reducing water backup into yards and homes in the area.
Blue Granite’s former Friarsgate treatment plant was targeted by environmental regulators over sewage discharge into the Saluda River, before the plant was shut down and the system tied into the city of Columbia’s.
At this time, the company is not interested in selling its Irmo operations, Wilson said.
The town of Irmo does not have its own water and sewer department. Instead, residents are served by a mix of systems operated by Blue Granite, the city of Columbia or Richland County, depending on where they live. That can create price jumps from one neighborhood to another.
“Old Friarsgate is on Richland County, and they pay a $65 fixed price,” Walker said. “New Friarsgate is handled by Blue Granite, and they pay $85 a month. That’s in the same area, the same part of town.”
Blue Granite is a private utility, formerly known as Carolina Water Service, that has had poor relations with the communities it serves before. In December, the town of Lexington agreed to pay $3.7 million to Blue Granite to take over the company’s wastewater treatment plant on Lake Murray. A deal was only reached after a lengthy court battle between the two over whether the plant, which discharged into the Saluda River watershed, could be connected to Lexington’s sewer system.
Walker said he would also be willing to go to court if necessary to get control of the town’s sewer system.
The town council in April will vote on whether to approve a $29,957 contract with Hybrid Engineering to evaluate what might be a fair offer on the system.
“We’re very serious,” Walker said. “We wouldn’t be spending $30,000 on this if we weren’t serious.”
This story was originally published March 16, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
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