Water utility feeling PSC heat over crisis
On Friday, the state Public Service Commission ordered Liberty Utilities to explain the steps it has taken since 2015 regarding policies, personnel and infrastructure to guard against the water crisis Pine Bluff just endured.
The utility filed an order in late February directing Liberty to give a detailed accounting of the water problems that saw pressure plummet across the city, reducing residential water service to a trickle in some areas, and forcing businesses and other large water users to close or curtail their operations.
The utility, in the February order, also directed Liberty to provide daily updates on the status of the city’s water system and what the company was doing to fix the problems. The commission noted that Liberty has been making those daily filings, but in Friday’s order, the PSC made clear that it also wanted to dig deeper as it starts its review of how the company has been operating.
The commission was joined last month by Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, who said her office would also investigate Liberty’s actions and performance.
“In order to begin the Commission’s investigation into the aforementioned events, Liberty is hereby directed to file testimo
ny from a person or persons with knowledge of the System Planning and Operations of Liberty from March 6, 2015, until the present,” the order stated.
The commission said it wants to know “the root cause and reasons” behind the outage and leaks that started on Feb. 18 and extended into March.
The PSC also said it wants to know the steps taken by Liberty during the crisis “and why/how those were appropriate steps to identify and correct the outage and leaks that occurred,” as well as what “operational changes Liberty has made and anticipates it will make in order to prevent or minimize similar unplanned service disruptions.”
To apparently get a better understanding of what led to the water crisis, the PSC is asking for information from the utility that goes back for as long as six years. To that end, the commission is asking Liberty what its management was aware of and the direction it took in regard to the leaks “and other operational issues” as well as “management’s awareness of and direction given to address leaks and other operational issues Liberty was experiencing prior to February 2021.”
The commission is also asking Liberty for “all policies implemented or modified by Liberty since March 6, 2015, intended to result in improved operation of the system.”
This request for information includes personnel policies and the training employees had, infrastructure maintenance and management policies, and “why such infrastructure additions and maintenance were necessary; and any improvements that resulted in the delivery of water throughout the system or reductions in leaks.”
The commission is asking Liberty to provide it with its emergency planning policies and protocols, with the information to “include a discussion of the development and update of such policies made since March 6, 2015.”
The water problems started happening during a week of extremely cold weather when temperatures reached as low as zero on the night of Feb. 15 with sub-freezing temperatures extending for several days before and after that. Liberty has blamed the crisis on the cold weather that froze and burst pipes, causing its system to falter. Others have questioned whether Liberty has invested enough in its infrastructure.
One area of concern has been the almost a billion gallons of lost or unaccounted for water in 2019, a number that more than tripled over 2018. The contention is that had Liberty fixed its leaky system, the just-ended water crisis would not have been as severe.
At the height of the problem, Jefferson Regional Medical Center could no longer accept patients and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff had to move students into hotels.
The commission has set May 3 as the deadline for Liberty to respond to the order.