In the Public Interest has released a comprehensive report explaining just how bad a deal water and sewer privatization has been for Pennsylvania customers. Gloucester Township, Bernardsville, Hopewell, South Orange and other New Jersey towns considering privatizing should take heed. https://inthepublicinterest.org
Category: Uncategorized (page 1 of 4)
Gloucester Township received Local Finance Board permission to dissolve its successful municipal utilities authority in May of 2023… An attorney speaking for the town told the LFB at that time that the leadership team in place at the time had no plans to sell the sewer system… The same leadership team went public with plans to sell the sewer system 10 months later. https://patch.com/new-jersey/gloucestertownship/residents-blast-proposed-sale-gloucester-townships-sewer-utility
South Orange voters may be asked to decide whether to sell their system to NJ American Water. https://patch.com/new-jersey/southorange/south-orange-might-privatize-its-drinking-water-what-we-know-so-far
A 2016 law made it easier for corporate water and sewer utilities to buy systems at inflated prices. The result has been huge increases in costs to their customers across the Commonwealth.
In yet another setback for the mega utility company, an administrative law judge with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission has ordered a stay on Aqua Pennsylvania Wastewater’s application to purchase the Delaware County Regional Water Quality Control Authority (DELCORA).
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In early September, the three county commissioners of Bucks County, just north of Philadelphia, voted down a $1.1 billion bid from Aqua Pennsylvania to buy their sewer system. This response to an outpouring of citizen concern about what would have been the largest privatization of a public wastewater system in the country illuminates a larger story — both of the encroachment of privatization and the potential for victories when citizens mobilize around its costs.
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Residents are uniting across political lines to battle corporations attempting to privatize their water systems.
Big water companies like American Water, Aqua America, and, in the case of Towamencin, the Florida-based NextEra have been buying up water and wastewater systems in Pennsylvania, after legislation passed there that allows municipalities to sell public utilities more easily.
But in Towamencin and other towns of varying sizes, demographics, and political leanings, they’re meeting unexpected resistance.
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Bucks County Water & Sewer Authority is thinking about selling its sewer system for a little more than $1 billion, but residents are concerned about rates going up.
Watch the video here
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania lawmakers are weighing legislation that would make it easier for private water companies to target municipal authorities for acquisition, purchases that new research shows can lead to higher bills for consumers.
It would require public water systems with more than 750 customers to develop and give to the state an asset management plan that includes a schedule for identifying and replacing infrastructure like old pipes and meters, as well as the estimated cost of such projects and the projected rate increases needed to afford them.
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A controversial proposal for a multimillion-dollar, four-decade sewer deal between the city and a private equity firm has come to an end — although the possibility of a larger legal dispute over the matter looms.
City Council voted this week to rescind its authorization for a concession of the Pleasantville sewer system to Bernhard Capital Partners.
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