Archives > 1976 South Carolina Code of Laws - Previous Versions > 2005 Session > Title 58

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Title 58 - Public Utilities, Services and Carriers

CHAPTER 7.

SPECIAL PROVISIONS AFFECTING GAS, WATER OR PIPELINE COMPANIES

SECTION 58-7-10. Rights, powers and privileges of telegraph and telephone companies conferred on pipeline companies.

Subject to the same duties and liabilities, all the rights, powers and privileges conferred upon telegraph and telephone companies under Article 17 of Chapter 9 of this Title are hereby granted to pipeline companies incorporated under the laws of this State or to such companies incorporated under the laws of any other state when such companies have complied with the laws of this State regulating the doing of business herein by foreign corporations.

SECTION 58-7-20. Rights, powers and privileges of telegraph and telephone companies conferred on water companies.

Subject to the same duties and liabilities, all the rights, powers, and privileges conferred upon telegraph and telephone companies under Chapter 2 of Title 28, including the power to condemn property, are granted to companies engaged in supplying water or sewerage services incorporated under the laws of this State or to companies incorporated under the laws of any other state upon complying with the laws of this State regulating foreign corporations and by becoming a domestic corporation.

SECTION 58-7-25. Right to repurchase unused condemned property.

(A) If the property, or any portion of it, condemned by a corporation engaged in the business of supplying sewerage service, pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, is not used for the purpose for which it was condemned within a five-year period from the date it was condemned, the former owner has the right to repurchase the property from the corporation upon payment of the original purchase price.

(B) Unless the former owner exercises his right to repurchase this property within a period of one year from the expiration of the five-year period as provided in subsection (A), the right to repurchase ceases when the corporation gives the former owner ninety days' notice that the right will expire at the end of the ninety-day period.

SECTION 58-7-30. Water companies may condemn land for waterworks.

(A) Any corporation engaged in the business of supplying water or sewerage services in this State or which may intend to engage in the business of supplying water or sewerage services has the same rights and powers of condemnation as are conferred upon municipal corporations pursuant to the provisions of Sections 5-31-420, 5-31-430, and 5-31-440.

(B) Before a corporation engaged in supplying sewer services as authorized under the provisions of this section exercises the right of condemnation, the governing body of the county in which the condemnation will occur must adopt an ordinance granting the corporation the authority to condemn property necessary to provide sewer services.

SECTION 58-7-40. Water companies may contract with municipalities or public service districts to collect charges for sewage disposal and to disconnect water service for nonpayment of sewer charges.

All private corporations, subject to the jurisdiction of the South Carolina Public Service Commission, engaged in the business of providing water service and selling and distributing water for domestic, commercial or industrial purposes may, if the approval of the South Carolina Public Service Commission is obtained, enter into contracts with any incorporated municipality or any special purpose district upon terms and conditions to be mutually agreed upon (including an agreement by the municipality or public service district to hold the private corporation harmless for any error by the municipality or public service district regarding the payment or nonpayment of sewer charges) by which the municipalities or special purpose districts shall (a) constitute the corporation the agent of the municipalities or special purpose districts, for the purpose of collecting such charges as the municipalities or special purpose districts shall from time to time impose upon those who utilize its sewage disposal facilities; and/or (b) empower the corporation as the agent of the municipalities or special purpose districts to disconnect water service upon failure of any user to pay sewer charges.

SECTION 58-7-50. Lease of property of gas company.

Except as prohibited in section 7, article 9 of the Constitution of 1895, any gas company organized under the laws of this State may lease its property and franchises to any other gas company, upon such terms as may be agreed upon by a majority of the stockholders at a special meeting held after thirty days' advertisement thereof.

SECTION 58-7-60. Unlawful appropriation of gas.

Any person who has no contract, agreement, license or permission with or from any person or corporation authorized to manufacture, sell or use gas for the purpose of light, heat or power or with or from any authorized agent of such person or corporation for the use of gas belonging to, or produced or furnished by, any such person or corporation who shall wilfully withdraw or cause to be withdrawn in any manner and appropriate such gas from the pipes or conduits of any such person or corporation for his own use or for the use of any other person or corporation shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not exceeding one hundred dollars or by imprisonment not exceeding thirty days, or by both such fine and imprisonment. Any person who shall aid, abet or assist such other person in such withdrawing and appropriating of such gas from such pipes or conduits to or for the use of such other person or to or for the use of any other person or corporation shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall, upon conviction, be punished in like manner.

SECTION 58-7-70. Wrongful use of gas; interference with gas meter.

Any person who has a contract, agreement, license or permission, oral or written, with or from any person or corporation authorized to manufacture, sell or use gas for the purpose of light, heat or power or with or from any authorized agent of any such person or corporation for the use of the gas belonging to, or produced or furnished by, any such person or corporation for certain specified purposes who shall wilfully and intentionally withdraw, or cause to be withdrawn any such gas in any manner and appropriate it to his own use or to the use of any other person or corporation for purposes other than those specified shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished as provided in Section 58-7-60. And any such person to whom such gas is furnished from or by means of a meter who shall wilfully and with intention to cheat and defraud any such person or corporation alter or interfere with such meter or by any contrivance whatsoever withdraw or take off gas in any manner except through such meter shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and be punished as provided in Section 58-7-60.