WATER WARS
How Chester Water Authority is girding to fend off big-bucks offer from Aqua Pa.
On Thursday Chester Water Authority board members received a twoinch thick internal analysis evaluating the feasibility of selling the company - even as the authority has received 11 resolutions from member municipalities who support their decision to stay private.
On May 8, the authority received a hand-delivered offer from Aqua America, the behemoth in the local water business, seeking to buy the system for $250 million. Nine days later, the authority unanimously rejected the offer while simultaneously approving a study to be completed to determine if a sale would be in the best interest of its customers.
Also at the May 17 meeting, Pennsylvania American Water presented letters of introduction to Chester Water Authority board members.
Since then, the Chester Water Authority has been receiving letters of resolutions from member municipalities supporting their decision to reject the Aqua bid.
In addition, the board approved having CWA staff gather information for the board to determine if the sale of the customers and assets would be in the best interests of the rate-paying customers. It imposed a deadline of 60 to 90 days for that information to be presented to the board. They received it Thursday.
“I just went through the information but I believe ... that it would be hardpressed to change my mind at this time,” said Cynthia F. Leitzell, chairperson of the Chester Water Authority board.
Part of what the study did was to take a look at House Bill 104, which would require the sale of a water or sewer authority if only discussed at a public meeting and if it meets the criteria of benefiting the ratepayers through a rate reduction, improved service quality or reliability, rate stabilization, or with state or federal agreement.
The bill passed the state House of Representatives in March and now awaits further action.
That push follows a change in interpretation of the state Supreme Court involving Section 27, the Environmental Rights clause of the state constitution. That section pertains to the right of state residents to clean and pure air and water and deems the commonwealth a trustee to conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all people.
In a landmark decision in the Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Fund v Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the court determined that state residents’ environmental rights are sacred rights, redirecting the focus going forward to look through that lens.
Aqua Pennsylvania officials said the responsibility imparted through Section 27 is met through the Public Utility Commission, which regulates private utilities’ price and service, and the state Department of Environmental Protection, which regulates water quality and use through permitting water sources.
They also noted that the PUC requires public hearings and a formal hearing before a judge or commissioners before rates are effective.
“Even absent this oversight, with which we comply, we consider it our responsibility to provide our customers with clean, safe drinking water and are proud to live up to that responsibility every day,” the Aqua PA officials said.
The CWA study also did a comparative analysis of rates historically in its own structures and with those outside the authority.
On its own website, the Chester Water Authority notes it has raised rates just nine times over the past three decades. This chart also says that a residential customer using an average of 18,000 gallons of water a
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