Are The City's Water Rates Unconstitutional?

Last week, this Letter To The Editor appeared in The Anderson Independent. Although it discusses oppressive water rates in Anderson County, it brings up some good points of relation to Liberty City Water.

From John Schinnagel of Anderson:

I’m no lawyer but think I understand our language and believe the 100 percent levy by the city of Anderson on non-resident customers is unconstitutional.

Article 1., Section 3, of our state Constitution states, “nor shall any person be denied the equal protection of the laws.”

Certainly the terms “any person” and “equal protection of the laws” apply to customers of privately owned utilities and customers of city-owned utilities.

However, on one side of Centerville Road, residential customers of the for-profit West Anderson water utility pay a single rate. They do so because the S.C. Public Service Commission protects them from dual-rate manipulation. On the other side of Centerville Road, Anderson city non-residents pay the city’s non-profit utility 100 percent more for water than city residents because of an absence of written laws to protect them. Both utilities are members of, and purchase water from, the same Lake Hartwell distribution system.

Under our constitution, those non-resident customers using city water are being denied equal protection of the laws that the state uses to protect West Anderson customers.

Therefore, the rates approved by the city violate our state constitution and should be rescinded.

If my understanding is wrong, I would expect an immediate reaction from City Manager John Moore defending the city’s action and refuting my logic.

But if I am right and the city is violating the constitutional rights of Anderson County citizens, I suspect the silence will be deafening.