The Philadelphia Inquirer covered the potential sale of the Chester Water Authority (CWA) in an article written by Andrew Maykuth. The article, published Monday, August 23, 2021, discussed the potential increase customers would see in their water bills if Aqua Pennsylvania’s requested rate increase is approved by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.
“Aqua Pennsylvania, the Bryn Mawr company that has been buying up public utilities in the Philadelphia suburbs in recent years, is seeking to increase water bills for 445,000 customers by 17% and sewer bills by almost double that.
A typical suburban residential water customer’s bill would increase to $81.32 a month, or nearly $1,000 a year.”
As noted in the article, Aqua Pennsylvania has been on a buying spree, purchasing several municipal water and wastewater systems, as well as an attempted takeover of CWA.
“Since 2016, Aqua has agreed to buy eight systems in the Philadelphia suburbs for a total of $295 million — New Garden Township, Limerick, East Bradford, Cheltenham, East Norriton, Lower Makefield, Willistown and East Whiteland. It has a deal to buy the massive DELCORA wastewater system in Delaware and Chester Counties for $277 million and has offered to buy the Chester Water Authority for $410 million. Both of those deals are tied up in litigation.”
