City council oversight of PWSA has not proved helpful

Regarding “City Council Wants to Keep a Voice on the PWSA” (May 9):

How ironic! Since its inception, Pittsburgh City Council has been involved with oversight of the PWSA. That oversight has not served city residents well.

With approval of past council members, PWSA was saddled with more than $100 million in debt that was not used to improve our water and sewer systems, but to meet a shortfall in the funding of the city pension plans. Similarly, with past members of council on the PWSA board, the PWSA borrowed another $50 million to support projects of the stadium and redevelopment authorities that produced no benefit to the PWSA.

With past and present council oversight, the PWSA was allowed to keep its rates artificially low in spite of a water pipe system that leaked so badly that 25 percent of the water it processed could never be accounted for.

With past council oversight, the PWSA was allowed (forced) to defer maintenance, spending just $5 million annually on capital improvements on a system that now has more than $1 billion in required capital expenses. It is now facing a consent decree related to its sewer system that is estimated to require at least another $1 billion expenditure.

Council claims it has the right and duty to represent the public’s interest on the PWSA board. Let us hope that it does a better job in the future than it has done in the past. JACK OCHS Point Breeze