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| MISSION
To provide water and sewer
services to residents, visitors, businesses, communities,
municipalities, and private utilities within Horry County.
Services are provided to protect public health, protect the
environment, and improve each customer’s quality of life. |
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In the early 1970's, the
founders of the Grand Strand Water and Sewer Authority
had a clear sense of purpose for the organization and a compelling
vision of what the organization was to become. The purpose was to
provide water and sewer services to the rapidly developing non-municipal
area east of the Intracoastal waterway in Horry County. The vision was
to develop a comprehensive and coordinated water and sewer utility
system on a countywide or regional basis to allow Horry County to grow
and develop to its fullest potential. This sense of purpose or mission
and compelling vision led to the Grand Strand Water and Sewer Authority
one of the Myrtle Beach Utilities
in becoming a modern success story. From a utility with no assets,
customers, or funding, in thirty-five years the GSWSA has grown into a
company with assets near $420,000,000, over 50,000 customers, and annual
revenues over $32,000,000. From a limited service area east of the
Intracoastal Waterway, the Authority has expanded to provide services
reaching to the North Carolina line, into Georgetown County, and into
the rural portion of the county west of the Waccamaw River. In a county
known as the 'Independent Republic' with six municipal water and sewer
utilities and two public water companies, the GSWSA provides contractual
services to each of these consolidating with the Town of Surfside Beach
utility in 1994 and the Town of Aynor January 1, 1998. The development
of the GSWSA has allowed Horry County to grow from a population of
70,000 in 1970 to 226,000 today. GSWSA has approached the vision of its
farsighted founders. |
Local
ownership distinguishes electric cooperatives from many
other utilities. The more than 535,000 cooperative consumers
in South Carolina own and control their electric companies.
Each cooperative's members -- the consumers -- elect a board
of trustees to represent them in setting policies for their
cooperative and rates for their electricity. 
