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.
Burbank is a census-designated place (CDP) in Walla Walla County, Washington, United States, where the Snake River meets the Columbia. The population was 3,303 at the 2000 census. The city is located just south of Pasco, and east of Kennewick, across the Snake and Columbia Rivers, respectively. Kennewick and Pasco are two of the Tri-Cities, and although Burbank is much smaller than either of the two cities, generally Burbank can be considered to be part of the Tri-Cities metropolitan area. Chuck Palahniuk and Jeremy Bonderman grew up in Burbank.