Chesnee is small, a little over a square mile with about 830 people in 2020, but it anchors a big rural stretch of northeastern Spartanburg County. The town grew up after the Chesnee Land Company laid it out around 1910, with a cotton mill, a lumber mill and a hotel, and it was chartered in 1911. A sliver of it crosses into Cherokee County, and the Cowpens National Battlefield is a short drive away.
Water comes from the Liberty-Chesnee-Fingerville Water District, formed in 1960 to serve this corner of the county. It buys its treated water from the Spartanburg Water System, so it is the same soft lake water as in Spartanburg. In town, sewer is the Spartanburg Sanitary Sewer District, which runs a treatment plant at Chesnee. Out in the country, homes are on septic.
Permits here take an unusual path. For an address inside town limits, you first get zoning approval at Chesnee City Hall on West Cherokee Street, then take it to Cherokee County Building Safety in Gaffney, which issues the permit. Outside town, in unincorporated Spartanburg County, the permit comes from Spartanburg County Building Codes instead.
Gas Guys answers 24 hours a day, and the drive from Spartanburg up US 221 is a direct one.
Chesnee at a glance
- Natural gas
- Piedmont Natural Gas or propane. Piedmont Natural Gas where its mains reach; much of the countryside around Chesnee runs on propane. Your bill tells you which you have.
- Water
- Liberty-Chesnee-Fingerville Water District
- Sewer
- Spartanburg Sanitary Sewer District in town; septic in rural areas
- Permits
- Cherokee County Building Safety, after City of Chesnee zoning approval
- Housing
- A small early-1900s town core of older frame houses, surrounded by rural homes and farmhouses on larger lots.
Plumbing and gas in Chesnee: what to know
Propane past the mains
Plenty of homes around Chesnee have no natural gas main nearby and run the range, water heater, furnace or gas logs on propane. Your propane company owns and sets the tank and its regulator. From there to each appliance is house piping, and it should be sized, pressure-tested and leak-checked the same as a natural gas line. Every appliance must be set up for propane, not just connected to it.
Long yard lines on big lots
On rural lots the water line from the meter at the road to the house can run a long way, and some older ones were laid in plastic that turns brittle with age. A wet spot that never dries, a meter that moves with everything off, or a sudden drop in pressure points to a yard line leak. SC811 does not mark customer-owned lines, so we locate the line before anyone digs.
Septic in the country
Outside the town sewer, homes rely on septic. Slow drains throughout the house at once usually mean the tank or drain field, which is septic contractor work. One slow fixture, or a clog that keeps coming back in the same spot, is usually a drain line we can clear.
Pipes in unheated spaces
Rural homes often have pipes and water heaters in crawlspaces, detached garages or outbuildings, and those freeze first in a hard cold snap. Pipe insulation, heat cable rated for the pipe material, and a slow drip at the farthest faucet on the coldest nights prevent most splits.
Propane appliances and conversions
A propane water heater or range is set up with a different orifice and gas valve setting than its natural gas twin. If a main ever reaches your road and you switch from propane to natural gas, or the other way around, every appliance needs its conversion handled, not just the meter or the tank.