County leaders to take up Pioneer water project

Oconee County Council has announced it will hold a special meeting to talk about Pioneer Rural Water’s treatment plant—work on which has begun in two sections of southern Oconee.  Land adjacent to the county’s Golden Corner Commerce Park has been set aside for the plant.  The project has rankled some of Pioneer’s customers who fear what they pay for water will increase above that which Pioneer now pays for water on the wholesale market.  And it has thrown an economic wrinkle into both Seneca and Westminster, which sell water to Pioneer.  Pioneer officials have defended their move into the water-making business by maintaining that, in the long run, it will be cheaper to produce and sell their own water.  The special council meeting is to take place Tuesday at council chambers, at the end of a planning and economic development committee meeting.