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.
Bumpus Mills is an unincorporated community in Stewart County, Tennessee, United States. Located on Saline Creek, it lies five miles east of the Cumberland River, three miles south of the Kentucky border, and ten miles northeast of Dover. The town was named in honor of Andrew Jackson Bumpus who established a grist, saw, and flour mill on Saline Creek in 1846. The community is part of the Clarksville, TN–KY Metropolitan Statistical Area.