Background
Anderson Regional Joint Water System (Joint Water System), located at 998 Hunters Trail, Anderson, SC 29625 is a partnership of rural and municipal water districts devoted to providing a high-quality, clean, safe, reliable, economical flow of treated water to its wholesale customers in Anderson and Pickens counties.
The Joint Water System, Lake Hartwell Water Treatment Plant is supplied by surface water from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' 55,000 acre Lake Hartwell Reservoir, which lies along the border of Upstate South Carolina and Georgia. The plant operates 24 hours per day, every day of the year. Its current capacity is 42.80 million gallons a day (MGD). With the latest, on-going expansion project, the capacity will be taken to 48 MGD by 2009, and then to 50 MGD by 2010..
Formed in 2000 under Title 6 Chapter 25, of the South Carolina Code of Laws, 1976, as amended, there were three (3) founding members-- Belton-Honea Path Water Authority, Big Creek Water District, and Broadway Water District. These three (3) members added ten new members in April of 2002 and, at the same time, the expanded partnership purchased and began operating Duke Energy's Lake Hartwell Water Treatment Plant.
The Joint Water System is governed by a 14 member Board of Commissioners. Each member of the Board represents a water district or municipality that purchases its water from the Joint Water System. Currently, there are fifteen (15) member agencies in Anderson and Pickens Counties, and all except Belton-Honea Path Water Authority and the Town of Central receive treated water from the Joint Water System. Clemson University also purchases water from the System, but because of state statute is exempt from membership on the Board.
The fifteen (15) member agencies are as follows:
- Anderson, City of (Electric City Utilities)
- Belton-Honea Path Water Authority
- Big Creek Water & Sewerage District
- Broadway Water & Sewerage District
- Central, Town of
- Clemson,City of
- Clemson University
- Hammond Water District
- Homeland Park Water District
- Pendleton,Town of
- Powdersville Water District
- Sandy Springs Water District
- Starr-Iva Water and Sewer District
- West Anderson Water District
- Williamston,Town of
History OF WATER IN ANDERSON, SC
Over 100 years ago, long before someone decided it was unhealthy, Anderson residents took their water from a nearby swamp, also known as Cox’s Creek.
In 1910, the State required Anderson to go to surface water and treatment. Three years later, Southern Power Company, Duke Power Company’s predecessor, bought the water operation. When the city had to use treated surface water, a pumping station was built on Bailey Creek. A second Water Treatment Plant for the City was built on Cox’s Creek, east of Anderson behind Anderson University. This location served the City as the source and continued until additional water was needed. This is when an intake was located on Rocky River, with pumping from Rocky River to the Cox’s Creek Water Treatment Plant.
The first line from Rocky River was a 16-inch wooden pipe. Cast iron pipe later replaced the wooden type. After the drought of 1954, a large pump-fed storage reservoir was constructed on Old Williamston Road above grade of the Treatment Plant. An additional reservoir upstream of the Rocky River was constructed to allow flow to be released as needed for the intake, with storage in the reservoir on Old Williamston Road, prior to treatment and distribution.
As industry began to locate around Anderson, and also for continuing service to the textile mills which were located in or near the City of Anderson, Duke Water (who took over the water operations around 1927) began projections for supplying long-term demand using growth projections from the electric side of the Company. The Anderson/Greenville/Spartanburg areas were seen as strong growth potential on the electric side, which in turn projected additional water needs for the water side. In the mid 1960’s, Duke Power hired J.E. Sirrine Company, Engineers of Greenville, to design the present Water Treatment Plant on Hartwell Lake. Design and construction of the plant were completed in 1968, with some water usage from the plant beginning in the same year.
Anderson continued to draw its water from Rocky River until 1969; however, Rocky River was no longer large enough to supply the water that Anderson needed. That is when the Hartwell Lake Filter Plant was completed and put into full service for Duke Power Company’s Anderson Water Operations.
Hartwell Lake Filter Plant continued to be operated by Duke Power until they sold the plant to the Anderson County Joint Municipal Water System (now called Anderson Regional Joint Water System) on April 18, 2002.