Aqua Utilities' Pasco customers fighting water rate increase
ANTHONY ALLRED/STAFF
Don Simonson waters the bushes on his front lawn of his Port Richey home. You can see he is standing on his gravel lawn. He said someone else took out the grass and layed the gravel before he moved in 10 years ago. Simonson says he is so frustrated with Aqua Utilities that he's thinking about having the bushes removed so he doesn't have to water them. He said every time he waters the bushes he feels like he's taking a hand full of money and throwing it all over the bushes. He moved to Port Richey from Chicago with his now deceased wife 10 years ago to retire.
Published: March 21, 2011
PORT RICHEY - Charlie and Marie Skelton used to have a lush green lawn, and flower beds and a succulent garden bursting with fat aloe vera plants.But today, their yard is a desert of sand and weeds. The flowers are long gone, and even the aloes are shriveled up and brown. Like most of their neighbors in Jasmine Lakes, the Skeltons stopped watering their yard about the time Aqua Utilities took over their water and sewer service.
Aqua customers pay some of the highest water and sewer rates in Florida – two to three times what neighboring communities charge. And they're about to get even higher if the Florida Public Service Commission approves the company's requested rate increase.
"I'm surrounded by water, and I've got the highest water prices around," Skelton said.
He and his wife routinely pay more than $100 a month for water and sewer service. Aqua Utilities doesn't allow customers to install separate irrigation meters, which would eliminate sewer fees for water that goes directly to the sprinkler system. So Skelton and many of his neighbors simply disconnected their sprinklers or covered their yards with gravel.
Don Simonson has a gravel yard and he's thinking about removing a row of hedges – the only green thing left in his yard. "Every time I water them, I feel like I'm just throwing money away," he said.
In neighboring Palm Terrace and across the county in Zephyr Shores, the rates are even higher. Linda Trautmann, who lives in Palm Terrace, lives alone and conserves water, but her monthly bill fluctuates between $85 and $90, and "it's not fit to drink."
If Aqua's rate increase goes through, her bill would easily exceed $100. The same is true for Roz Angelini, who also lives alone and even switched to low-flow toilets. She's still irked that Aqua wouldn't pay the $100 rebate like publicly owned utility systems.
"You can try to save water, but it doesn't make any difference," she said. "Anything you do to lower your water bill – they just raise the rates."
Aqua Utilities makes money even when its customers don't use any water. The company charges customers in its three Pasco County service areas a $50 facility charge before they use the first drop of water. It's a billing strategy that keeps the money flowing in communities with a large number of seasonal residents.
"What this company is doing to these people is very unfair," said Frank Reams, a retired customer service manager for a telephone company. "They charge customers a $50 monthly facility fee even when they're not in the house."
A cofounder of Friends of Locally Owned Water in Florida, or FLOW, Reams is volunteering his time to help Aqua customers fight the rate hikes. Reams said the company's customer service record is appalling. "The PSC regulates 160 water companies in the state of Florida," he said. "This company accounts for 47 percent of the total complaints."
In February, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection cited Aqua Utilities' Palm Terrace sewer treatment plant for being "significantly out of compliance." Inspectors found dozens of violations, among them "solid waste was observed in the southern pond, and large solids were at the surface of both ponds."
Inspectors noted: this is a repeat item.
Company spokeswoman Gretchen Toner said she couldn't comment on the inspection report other than to say, "We are in compliance and our folks are addressing the issues in the letter."
Pasco County Commissioner Jack Mariano hosted a town hall meeting for Aqua customers earlier this month in Jasmine Lakes. More than 400 people attended.
Mariano is helping organize a bus trip to Tallahassee for the PSC's May 24 meeting. The commission is scheduled to rule on the rate case.
On March 11, Pasco Commissioners unanimously adopted a resolution opposing the rate increase. Mariano said Aqua's facility charges are already 237 percent higher than Pasco County's charges. "These people can't afford it," he said. "Imagine being a single lady on a retirement income who used to pay $40 a month, and now you're paying $150."
"Faced with these dire conditions, the company has no choice but to seek timely rate relief," Aqua attorney Bruce May wrote. In a letter to PWC Chairwoman Nancy Argenziano, May wrote that the company's anticipated 10-percent profit margin would drop to 1 percent without the rate increase.
"The PSC guaranteed them an 11 percent rate of return," Mariano said.
Mariano wants a law that ties the company's profits to its water quality and service. If people have poor water quality, the PSC could lower their rate of return to zero.
Aqua Utilities Florida makes up just 4 percent of the company's overall assets, and its sudden drop in revenues has had little effect on the bottom line. Aqua America posted $124 million in profits last year – a 19 percent increase over 2009.
CEO Nicholas DeBenedictis called 2010 "one of the most successful financial years of my 19 years with the company," in a news release.
In an interview Friday, Toner said the company's overall health doesn't reflect the situation in Florida, where the company netted $176,00 last year. "We're just a little bit above breaking even," she said. "And we can't operate at a loss."
She said that utilities in each state operate independently, and the parent company does not shift funds from one state to another to pay for capitol improvements. In Florida, many of the systems Aqua purchased over the years needed substantial repairs.
"The systems had been neglected for some time," Toner said. "And consequently, the customers hadn't had a rate increase in a dozen years."
So far in 2011, the company has received rate increases in other states that will bring in an additional $6.8 million in revenue, a news release stated. The pending rate cases in Florida and other states could bring in another $26.6 million.
Skelton said he'll be taking the bus trip up to Tallahassee in May.
"This is like a gold mine for them," Skelton said. "It's a monopoly."
lkinsler@tampatrib.com (813) 259-8109
