State approves rate hikes for PAW customers in ‘18

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

State utility regulators approved a rate hike Thursday on Pennsylvania American Water customers to help the utility finance about $1.3 billion in infrastructure projects.

The hike increases a typical monthly residential water bill to $60.85 from $55.63, or about 9 percent. The rate increase, which will take effect Jan. 1, is the Hersheybased company’s first since 2013.

The company said it plans to improve treatment plants, storage tanks, wells and pumping stations that help clean and move water to more than 400 communities. The investments include replacing nearly 450 miles of aging pipe across the company’s nearly 10,700-mile network of water and sewer lines.

“We are pleased the commission has approved this fair and reasonable settlement, which balances our customers’ interests with the much-needed investments we make to ensure reliable, quality service,” utility president Jeffrey McIntyre said in a statement.

Last month, the company issued a two-day boil water advisory for about 100,000 customers in Washington and southern Allegheny counties after discovering cloudy water in its system. The company blamed a malfunctioning water filter at its Aldrich Purification Plant along the Monongahela River in Union Township, Washington County.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission also approved rate increases for the company’s 16 wastewater systems that have 55,000 customers in Adams, Beaver, Chester, Clarion, Cumberland, Lackawanna, Monroe, Northumberland, Pike, Washington and York counties.

Taken together, the rate increases will bring in about $62 million in additional revenue each year. The company, in filing for a rate increase in April, initially asked for $108 million more in annual revenue.

Commissioner Norman J. Kennard said the rate deal creates “stability and certainty” for ratepayers and noted the settlement was approved unanimously by all parties involved.

The company is prohibited from filing for another rate increase before March 31, 2020, and it agreed to forgo imposing an additional charge for infrastructure improvements in 2018.