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.
Manson is an unincorporated community (it is advertised as a "village," but not considered as such by the Census Bureau) in Chelan County in the state of Washington. It is located in the north-central portion of the state on the shore of Lake Chelan, approximately seven miles from the nearby town of Chelan. Manson is part of the Wenatchee–East Wenatchee Metropolitan Statistical Area. The USPS ZIP Code for Manson is 98831. According to data from the 2000 census, the total population in the Manson ZIP code was 3,178 persons occupying 1,540 housing units. Manson itself is not incorporated, and is not tracked by the Census.