COLUMBIA, S.C. — Some residents in northeast Columbia are upset after they say a fiber optic company damaged their yards and driveways. Columbia leaders said the company, Lumos, had a stop-work order last November for gas line breaks but that this was lifted a few months ago.
Now, people in the Fairways neighborhood are on edge after Lumos hit three water lines in less than a week on Sparkleberry Lane, Willow Bend Court and Brassie Court. One resident said Lumos hit two water lines under her driveway Friday. She sent pictures and videos of her current situation.
"We want transparency because this isn't right. And it's not right that a company can come in, do what they're doing, affect people's lives, affect their property with zero, they say they care. I don't feel like they do," the neighbor said.
While Lumos said they've revamped their safety plans by digging every 25 feet now and providing daily street sheets of where crews are each day, they said no plan is perfect.
"Sometimes with damages, it's a result of, sometimes those locates aren't exactly accurate," said Lumos Market Development Vice President Derek Kelly. "In the Midlands area, we've seen some issues with just either the records of the utility owners knowing exactly where their stuff is, or some of the really old infrastructure sometimes is hard to locate."
Utility companies like Columbia Water must mark these utility lines before digging starts.
"Yes, they do go off of old maps sometimes, but also when we install infrastructure, we also put in tracer line, which allows them to find it that way," said Benjamin Wildt, communications director for Columbia Water.
Wildt said tracer line can be detected by sweeping the ground.
But other neighbors who have markings on their lawns are worried. Angel Hansen and Antoya Perkins said they don't want anything to happen to their marked magnolia tree.
"Everywhere that they've dug, there's been an orange x, so we worry about the integrity and the health of this tree," Hansen said.
Lumos said to contact them with any issues they may not be aware of. Their email is fiberconstruction@lumosfiber.com.
Lumos said they have 11 crews working to install fiber optic cable in Richland County.