Water issues persist in Midlands neighborhood months after fiber optic company hit a main line

LEXINGTON COUNTY, S.C. (WIS) — Five months after a fiber optic company contributed to significant road damage and loss of water service in one Lexington County neighborhood, people who live there are dealing with similar issues again.

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The leak sent water gushing down the street on Thursday night.

Crews with Columbia Water have since repaired the leak, but there is more work to be done.

In making the emergency repair, a large hole was left behind in one family’s yard with pools of mud nearby.

Clint Shealy, Assistant City Manager with Columbia Water, said crews will be back out to the subdivision to restore the yard and road in the coming days.

“As always, we apologize for any interruption in service,” he said. “We try to get out and make those repairs and get service restored as quickly as possible, and just appreciate everybody’s patience while we work to repair and renew our infrastructure and we’ll get that restoration work done.”

Many in the area are frustrated and outraged that these issues, along with disruptions to their water service, are persisting.

Several neighbors told WIS they have experienced reduced water pressure and lost water service altogether for a few hours on Thursday.

“I think everybody’s a little confused, and they’re very upset,” Eugenia Temidis, who lives near the water leak, said. “The minute people lose water or even water pressure, everybody’s upset.”

Matthew Gault, who also lives in the subdivision, expressed a similar sentiment.

“Everyone needs water,” he said. “You need water to get through your day and when it’s cut off, you’re going to be mad.”

Columbia Water explained that unlike the situation in September, when subcontractors working for the fiber optic company Lumos struck a water main line, there is no indication that any external factors caused this leak.

The leak was simply caused by the condition of the 50-plus-year-old infrastructure in this neighborhood, Shealy said.

Shealy said that the materials used to lay the pipe in this neighborhood are not commonly used anymore.

“This piping material is aging out, and so it’s not uncommon for us to see leaks at joints and things of that nature. In older subdivisions, these are materials that developers put in years ago and then maybe were turned over to the city over time.”

Some neighbors still have questions.

“The fact that there’s a crew here digging all along the street for several days, that makes it a very strange coincidence so it’s very hard to say what exactly could’ve happened,” Temidis said.

Shealy said there is no evidence at this time to suggest a correlation between the work done by the fiber optic company and the leak.

However, Columbia Water will continue to investigate where the subcontractors have been working in relation to the piping in the neighborhood.

Those Lumos crews were in the area all day on Friday.

After the incident in September, Lexington County ordered Lumos to stop work in this subdivision.

That order was lifted in October after the company submitted a corrective action plan.

Columbia Water said a break like this one would not by itself lead the utility to modernize its infrastructure in a particular area.

Those decisions are made based on the frequency of breaks and leaks, the criticality of the assets, and the number of water quality complaints, Shealy said.

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