Public utilities provide electric, gas, water or telephone service to customers in a specified area. Utilities have a duty to provide safe and adequate service on reasonable terms to anyone who lives within the service area on without discriminating between customers. Because most utilities operate in near monopolistic conditions, they can be heavily regulated by local, state, and federal authorities. Generally, the local and state agencies are called Public Service Commissions (PSC) or Public Utility Commissions (PUC). Municipal Utilities and Rural Electric Cooperatives may be unregulated though.
Wye Mills is an unincorporated community in Talbot County, Maryland, United States, located at an altitude of 13 feet (4 m). It is the home of the Wye Grist Mill which has been in nearly continuous operation since 1682, and Wye Oak (Maryland's honorary state tree, which was destroyed in a June 6, 2002, severe thunderstorm) and of Chesapeake College.