TEGA CAY, S.C. — This past Labor Day weekend, Susie Boyle, her three children and several other families swam in the lake and were unaware that a neighbor had reported a sewage spill near a cove a few hundred yards away.
A neighbor emailed Channel 9 pictures of a crew bagging up the waste that bubbled from a manhole behind homes on Tepa Place. The crew put up a couple of yellow warning signs.
Neighbors told Channel 9 they never received any kind of mass alert about the spill and many people continued to swim in the water.
"The way that social media is the way you can text people, you can get immediate messages to anybody that are important. So right now, the city really needs to do that and the utility company needs to take control of that for sure," Boyle said.
Linda Stevenson is a part of a citizen's advisory committee created three years ago as a voice for neighbors frustrated with the ongoing sewage issues. She's been a customer of Tega Cay Water Services/Utilities Inc. for 19 years.
She said after four rate increases, countless public complaints, continued spills and drainage issues, she is fed up.
"We want them to connect their pipes and to the Tega Cay Sewer Department and out of the city and over to Rock Hill and Rock Hill can handle it." Stevenson said, "We want them out of here."
Channel 9 called Utilities Inc. just before 11am on the day of this report to find out if any alerts were sent out about the spill. We were told someone would call us this afternoon. We are still waiting to hear back.
Stevenson said the Tega Cay Water Citizen's Advisory Council is working to gather complaints and signatures from Utilities Inc. customers across South Carolina. The group hopes to present it to state leaders to push for another company to take over sewage in the area.
To learn more about the group's effort or submit a complaint, click here.
You can also email the Tega Cay Water Citizens Advisory Council at tcwateradvisory@hotmail.com.