9 Investigates: Fort Mill residents upset over proposed water...

FORT MILL, S.C. — Harlie Hammonds doesn't feel like he should pay even more for water.

Hammonds lives in Fort Mill's Foxwood neighborhood, which is one place where Utilities Inc. wants to raise rates.

Channel 9 reporter Greg Suskin caught up with him on his way to a meeting to protest the rate hike.

“How many times have the rates gone up out there?" Suskin asked.

"I don't know. It's a lot," Hammonds said.

Utilities Inc. has subsidiaries known under six different names in North Carolina and five in South Carolina, depending on their service area.

In the last decade, the company has gone before the Public Service Commission four times to request a rate increase. It's been approved three out of the four times.

Now the company is asking again, this time for a hike of just over 20 percent.

Some homeowners told the commission enough is enough.

"They're not doing the job I think they should be doing," another homeowner said.

"When you don't use a drop of water the new proposed rate is going to be almost $90 a month," a different homeowner said.

James Knowlton has spoken out against the private utility at every meeting.

"To me, it's all about getting the money and they really don't care about the water," Knowlton said.

Opponents said the company has a history of environmental violations and maintenance issues.

Channel 9 found that since 2009, the Department of Health and Environmental Control has fined Utilities Inc. 15 times. One fine was $341,500 for waste water violations and another $5,040 for drinking water violations.

In North Carolina, the Department of Environmental Quality, has fined the company nine times, but only $810 for minor issues.

Utilities Inc. declined Channel 9’s request for an interview, but did email a statement saying the proposed rate increase is designed to cover what it has already spent:

• Replacing water tanks

• Installing new pipes in River Hills at Lake Wylie

• Building a new wastewater treatment plant in Rock Hill

• Upgrading a wastewater treatment plant in Fort Mill

Utilities Inc. ran the water and sewer service in Tega Cay for about half the city for decades until homeowners, angry about constant sewage spills into Lake Wylie forced them out.

Those spills dumped thousands of gallons of raw sewage into the lake due to equipment failures, prompting repeated no-swimming advisories.

Tega Cay Mayor George Sheppard said the Chicago-based utility failed to properly upgrade and maintain the system.

"They should be fined back to the Stone Age,” Sheppard said. "They had no vested interest in what was going on in the city of Tega Cay. They didn't care.”

Last year, the city bought out the system, for $5.8 million. Since then, there have been no major spills.

For Hammonds over in Fort Mill, the only concern is stopping his monthly bill from rising.

A final decision will come by the end of the year.

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