IF — and this is a big if — the amount of residential and business growth in Laurens County remains constant, a professional study shows that it will cost $334 Million just to keep up with water and sewer infrastructure needs.
That staggering figure was shown to the Laurens County Water and Sewer Commission board at its July 29 meeting; and the full board voted in support of accepting the study and implementing its phased-in plans, if necessary.
“The plan will be constantly updated as need be,” said Jeff Field, LCWSC executive director. “We don’t want to be the reason that an economic development project that everyone wants doesn’t happen. That’s why this planning is so important.”
The water and sewer infrastructure will not be pay for by property taxes.
Developers pay capacity fees. Customers pay water and sewer rates. And LCWSC aggressively goes after government grants.
About $45M of the proposed $334M is already going into the ground as of 2025. This professional study, by GMC, envisions rural Laurens County’s water and sewer needs through 2050. It runs 360 pages.
The board did not “get into the weeds” of every project proposed in the study. Not all projects will be built, if development turns out not to happen in an area envisioned for development. Taking an overview, the board was told there are 34 water capital projects, totaling 62 miles of pipe and increasing water capacity by 9M gallons, and there are 27 wastewater projects - one of the largest would be LCWSC’s second wastewater treatment plant, envisioned for Gray Court.
The Northern Laurens County town is home to ZF Transmissions, other industries and a business district, easy access to I-385, an under-construction subdivision behind the elementary school, and the historic Culbertson Backcountry Settlement, dating to the Revolutionary War.
But the need for residential infrastructure depends on people - LCWSC serves 37,000 people right now, that number is projected to be 62,000 by 2050.
Laurens County has 70,000 population now, that number is seen to rise to 100,000 - 120,000 by 2050.
That LCWSC-serving number is largely dependent on water taps, and the figure supposes the installation of “just” 250 new water taps per year.
For FY2025, LCWSC work orders show 671 new water taps and 431 new sewer taps installed.
The most concentrated of these, of course, are within new subdivisions; but the board was shown that 246 (of the 671 water taps) were installed outside of subdivisions.
That means, Laurens County is growing not just with large housing developments; but with individual in-fill houses, and it’s reflective of people wanting to become less dependent on wells (which can dry up or become less dependable when the power goes out and the pump won’t run).
LCWSC has 900 miles of water pipes in the ground right now.
The study envisioning growth through 2050 says the proposed investment would add 2.6 Million gpd (gallons per day) to the water capacity and 4.1 Million gpd to the sewer capacity.
A primary funder for LCWSC projects has been the United States Department of Agriculture under its rural development program. Here, the utility can qualify for 40-year loans, which sounds like a lot until you realize LCWSC expects to install 50 - 100-year lifespan infrastructure.
A large amount of debt for the utility’s water system rolls off in 2032.
LCWSC plans to publish the entire 360-page report on its website: https://lcwsc.com
