The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission is set to approve Aqua Pennsylvania’s $75.1 million acquisition of the Limerick Township sewer system in Montgomery County, which will substantially boost consumer bills in the rapidly growing area after a three-year rate freeze expires.

In a series of binding votes Wednesday, the PUC voted to accept a hearing examiner’s recommendation to approve the sale with some conditions. The state Office of Consumer Advocate opposes the sale, saying that the acquisition will double monthly rates for Limerick’s customers in three years, and that Aqua’s 20,000 existing wastewater customers would save only three cents a month on their bills — in 15 years, writes Andrew Maykuth for philly.com. 

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That binding poll provides guidance for the PUC’s legal staff to draft an order approving the sale, which will be voted on at a later date.

The commission’s tentative approval is an early application of a 2016 state law that allows investor-owned utilities to recover the cost of buying municipal water and wastewater utilities at their fair-market value, rather than their book value. Under the old law, the buyer could charge only rates sufficient to pay for the municipal utility’s depreciated construction costs, which created a disincentive for the sale of older municipal systems.

Aqua said it will operate Limerick as a standalone system and retain the township’s seven employees. It plans $8.3 million in improvements to the system in the next 10 years, including upgrades to its two plants, the Possum Hollow wastewater treatment plant and the King Road wastewater treatment plant.

To read the complete story click here. 

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