Aug. 4--Graniteville and Vaucluse residents are up in arms after receiving "outrageous" water bills totaling hundreds of dollars from water operator and former mill owner Avondale. On Friday, the customers of the Avondale water and sewer entity opened their bills to find increases up to 700 percent from the previous month's bills. Monday, several state legislators and another local provider where working to iron out details to take the water system from Avondale and invest the millions that has been set aside to improve the failing infrastructure. "The bills are outrageous," Sen. Shane Massey (R-District 83) said Monday. After agreeing to the request of system owners Avondale Mills LLC in June, the South Carolina Public Service Commission (PSC) raised the water and sewer rates for the system for the first time since the 1980s. The rate increases took effect June 25, so this month's bill was the first to reflect the change. The PSC came to Graniteville for a public hearing, which was scarcely attended, in June, during which the increase was opposed by Massey, Rep. Tom Young and Rep. Roland Smith. All three said Monday that they hoped the system would have been transferred away from the mill owners before the bills arrived. According to PSC documents, Avondale was losing close to $500,000 a year from the water and sewer system. The PSC allowed the company to raise the rates to a point where it could make a small profit. A customer using 5,000 gallons of water and 5,000 gallons of sewer capacity previously would have paid roughly $12 a month. Now, that same customer would pay $69 for the same usage. The nearby authority, Valley Public Service Authority (VPS), would charge that customer $39.40. For one resident, Trey Sharpe, of Laurel Drive, the rate shift changed his water bill from an average of $70 a month to $597 which is due by Aug. 15 of this month. Graniteville resident Kimberly Gilbreath was shocked to receive her bill Friday afternoon. Her total bill normally is less than $30, but this month it jumped to $146, an amount she said is almost equal to the unemployment check her husband receives after being furloughed by TTX. Gilbreath questions if she is even responsible for using as much water as the bill states. At a meeting Monday, Young said there may be issues with some Avondale water meters. "I'm going down there to tell them I'm not paying until they can prove we used that much," she said. Monday afternoon, Massey, Young and Roland Smith sent a letter to the PSC asking that they delay the enforcement of the new rates until each customer had been given 30 days written notice.