Representatives from the Orangeburg Department of Public Utilities spent a day in Columbia recently attending a forum on the legislative process and talking with local legislators at the Statehouse.

Fred Yandle , Water Division director, and Hank Rutland, Water Treatment Plant superintendent, spent the morning in sessions sponsored by the S.C. Section of the American Water Works Association. They visited the General Assembly with a large group in the afternoon, reminding legislators that nearly every South Carolinian depends on the state's water professionals to provide clean drinking water.

Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, introduced the group in the Senate. Yandle and Rutland then spoke with Sen. John Matthews, D-Bowman.

"The General Assembly deals every year with issues that affect our water environment and our ability to provide clean water for South Carolinians," said Yandle, chair of SC-AWWA. "We wanted to remind our legislators of the importance of those issues, and to let them know that in every county there are experts who can help them. Those of us who manage and operate water utilities deal with those issues each day, and we can be a resource for our elected officials."

Orangeburg County's legislators are good friends of water utilities," Yandle said. "They always respond when we need them. But we don't expect them or other elected officials to be experts in what we do. We do hope, though, that they will call on us when they need information, or when they want to know how a change in the law might affect what we do."

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