CPW must deed wastewater lines to PSD
May 1, 2003
By JAMES LEE
THE JOURNAL
A group of arbitrators has ruled that the Charleston Commissioners
of Public Works must deed to the James Island Public Service District
all the sewer and wastewater lines installed on annexed property after
October 1995.
"We're talking about hundreds of thousands,
if not millions of dollars worth of lines that CPW is going to have
to disgorge and give back to the district." said PSD attorney Trent
Kernodle.
According to Kernodle, the decision will require
CPW to deed developer-installed lines within 30 days of the date of
the receipt of the identification of the PSD lines on the island.
"We were pleased with the decision," said Commissioner Rod
Welch, chairman of the PSD's Wastewater Committee.
In 1994, the PSD took CPW to court and received a consent order stating
that the PSD was entitled to control wastewater on James Island since
it did have federal loans which would not be paid off for 20 to 30 years.
Many of the issues concern annexation and developer-installed lines,
although according to Kernodle, CPW insisted that when a developer installed
lines, all lines should be given to them.
The recent ruling states that any property annexed after April 11, 1980,
and any line installed by a developer after October 12, 1995, would
revert to the PSD.
Kernodle projects that the lines could equal nearly $1 million in assets
to the district.
The change will also give the PSD a little more control over pump stations
and other facets of wastewater service.
"The PSD, certainly within engineering reason, can express how they
would like their pump station to look, the capacity of it, and so forth
and so on," said Kernodle.
According to Welch, CPW will be required to deed over the lines of approximately
700 customers.
In the ruling, CPW is also ordered to pay all associated legal fees.
Kernodle stated that if there is a dispute about which lines are to
be deeded over, the district and CPW will have to go back to the arbitrators
to decide.
Currently, the lines mentioned in the arbitration cover nearly 30 subdivisions
on James Island.
This decision came on the heels of Circuit Judge Thomas Hughston's ruling
that there is no clear answer in the question about whether the PSD
should continue to exist in areas where the district overlaps with the
Town of James Island.
Since there was no clear ruling, the PSD will continue to operate as
it has, unless there is an appeal of the decision, at which time it
will press forward to the South Carolina Supreme Court.
According to Kernodle, these decisions are not related, but simply increase
the size of the PSD.
"It really doesn't have a direct effect," he said.
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