Rushed fiber-optic installation threatens Lexington, South Carolina | Opinion

South Carolina cities and towns are facing a growing problem that threatens the safety of our streets, the integrity of our neighborhoods and local government’s ability to do its job. The issue? Utility digging and installation practices have spiraled out of control, driven largely by the aggressive and often uncoordinated expansion of fiber infrastructure.

In Lexington, where I’m on the Town Council, we’re all too familiar with what that looks like. For the past year, our community has been dealing with the aftermath of rushed fiber-optic installations and poor communication from the companies behind these expansions.

Contractors hired by various providers in a race to install fiber and claim territory have torn up streets, damaged yards and cut through driveways, irrigation systems and water, sewer and gas lines. In many cases, they leave behind little more than temporary patches and broken promises.

But the physical damage — while serious — is only part of the story. Behind the scenes, mounting utility location requests submitted through the state’s 811 system are placing an enormous burden on our local utility teams and raising real safety concerns and risks.

South Carolina’s 811 system was created in 1978 to prevent accidents by requiring anyone planning to dig to notify the state so underground utilities can be marked. Once a request is made, the system alerts utility providers with infrastructure in the area — such as Dominion Energy and municipalities responsible for water and sewer — that are then responsible for marking their own lines.

It’s a smart system in theory — but in practice, it’s being overwhelmed. Fiber companies, in their rush to beat competitors to market, are flooding it with vague, excessive, and overlapping requests — sometimes covering entire neighborhoods at once — even when they don’t plan to lay fiber in the whole area.

To make matters worse, state law only gives utility locators three business days to respond. After that window, digging is legally allowed to begin — regardless of whether the lines have been marked. That puts municipalities and utility providers in a dangerous race against the clock.

In the last year alone, “locate requests” have been submitted for hundreds of thousands of linear feet in our town. In some cases, more than 12,000 feet have been called in within a single 24-hour period. That kind of volume is unsustainable and places unnecessary strain on our crews.

These requests come on top of the daily work our utility teams already perform such as maintaining water and sewer systems, responding to service calls and protecting the integrity of our infrastructure. No matter how committed the team, the system wasn’t built to support this kind of demand — and we’re seeing the consequences.

Over the past year, our council has issued multiple stop-work orders due to unsafe digging and repeated violations of basic procedures. So far, we’ve required hundreds of property repairs, everything from cracked driveways and broken irrigation lines to damaged water and sewer systems. Behind each of those is a citizen left to deal with the aftermath.

As a local elected official, I hear from residents regularly. They want to know why this keeps happening and what the town can do to stop it. The reality is our hands are tied. Under current state law, municipalities have almost no authority to regulate or restrict this work in the public right-of-way. We’re left responding to damage, not preventing it.

And we’re not alone. Communities across South Carolina are facing the same challenges. This isn’t just a Lexington issue. It’s a statewide problem in need of a statewide solution.

That’s why South Carolina House Bill 3571 matters. It would require more accurate locate requests, prevent abuse of blanket tickets and establish better coordination with local governments. Most importantly, it would bring structure to a process that’s failing communities across our state.

This bill isn’t anti-business. It’s pro-accountability. It doesn’t say, “Don’t dig.” It says if you’re going to dig, do it responsibly, work with local governments, respect the rules, and fix what you break. The South Carolina House has passed this legislation. Now it’s the Senate’s turn.

I urge the Senate to prioritize this legislation, and I encourage residents — especially those who’ve experienced damage or disruption — to contact their state senator and ask them to support this bill.