Aqua America Customers to Stage Water Rate Protests
by Jess Leber · March 18, 2011
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Juli Williams, of Raleigh, North Carolina, has five daughters. Three are in college and two are in high school. She holds a full-time job as a personal assistant. Her husband is on unemployment.In short, Ms. Williams has her hands full.
But she somehow remarkably has had time to spearhead a grassroots campaign to oppose Aqua America, one of the nation's largest for-profit private water utilities, in its bid to win approval for a water rate increase before North Carolina's public utilities commission this year. Right now, she is organizing homeowners associations across the state to speak and protest outside of 6 public meetings that will occur next month. She is online, in her car posting flyers, on the phone raising early awareness, and directing many to an online petition set up on Change.org by the Hampton Ridge Neighbors, one affected homeowner group.
Why would a mother with this much on her plate take on this issue?
It's because she has to.
"The water bill, it can make or break us on some months. We cannot even budget for it—it's like a constant fear in your side waiting for it to come," she says. In the summer months, it can be more than $200. It is usually higher than her light bill. She has had neighbors come to use her shower after their water was cut off, after being only 10 days late paying their bill, which they couldn't afford. She has had enough.
So have many other Aqua North Carolina customers.
As I detailed in a previous post, the 88,000 customers in Aqua North Carolina's water and sewer service territory often have a monthly bill that's twice has high as families just miles away, who are served by publicly-owned utilities in the state. Now, for the 2nd time in three years, Aqua North Carolina wants to raise its rates–water by 20 percent and sewer by 16 percent.
The company says it does not make its "legally-allowed level of profit," but its reputation as a 'water profiteer' leads residents to be skeptical of these claims to say the least. As the Charlotte Observer reports, the industry is known as a "rate case machine": its business model depends on raising water rates for existing customers to pay for new investments. Wall Street analysts say Aqua America is one of the best-performing water utilities in the nation.
Juli Williams is applying for protest permits in the Raleigh area and hopes to get others active in different parts of the state. There is certainly enough discontent, judging by some initial comments on the petition, on online message boards, and on the group's small Facebook page.
Nationwide, Pennsylvania-based Aqua America has one million customers. The corporation's tactics have been slammed in a watchdog report and its constant rate increases have brought protests everywhere from Austin, Texas to Long Island, New York. In fact, New York Senator Chuck Schumer (D.) has called for a federal investigation of the company, which has had soaring profits while it lobbies for rate increases across the nation and accepts federal dollars.
Sign the petition to stand with North Carolina residents who are taking a stand against this water gouging.
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Jess Leber is a Change.org editor. She most recently covered climate and energy issues as a reporter in Washington, D.C 
