Texas Senators to investigate investor-owned utilities

"Wealthy people who invest their money through these investment firms have decided that these small rural water companies offer a great opportunity to make some money," Frederick said. "They want to squeeze more profits out of the cash flow."

First public hearing scheduled July 28 at the state Capitol

Note: We know of at least one investor-owned water utility in the area that could use a good investigation . . . it is long overdue. If you agree, please let Senator Watson know your feelings.

Send your comments and news tips to roundup.editor@gmail.com, to Sen. Watson at kirk.watson@senate.state.tx.us, 512.463.0114, or click on the "comments" at the bottom of the story

Austin American-Statesman | By Asher Price June 30 2011 – A group of Texas senators, led by state Sen. Kirk Watson , D-Austin , will investigate water and sewage rate increases by investor-owned utilities affecting thousands of people across Texas, including those in subdivisions in Travis, Hays and Williamson counties.

The decision to investigate rates comes after Monarch Utilities , a division of California-based SouthWest Water Co. , filed an application in late May to raise rates beginning Aug. 1 for water and wastewater customers.

Once the rate increase goes into effect, a typical Monarch customer could pay rates that are more than twice as high as those for the average water utility customer in a Texas city , according to Watson's office.

--
Posted By Blogger to The Hays County RoundUp at 7/01/2011 02:20:00 PM

 

Aqua customers in N.C. staging rate increase protests

Aqua America Customers to Stage Water Rate Protests

by Jess Leber · March 18, 2011

Topics:

• Environmental Activism ·
• Water

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.

And follow us on Facebook or  Twitter for continued updates.

Jess Leber is a Change.org editor. She most recently covered climate and energy issues as a reporter in Washington, D.C

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Aqua America in the news again in Florida

TBO > News > Breaking News
  

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.

ANTHONY ALLRED/STAFF

Charlie Skelton looks over some dried up plants in his front yard. his whole yard is dried up and full of lifeless plants. Skelton is very unhappy with Aqua utilities.

By LAURA KINSLER | The Tampa Tribune

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' parent company, Aqua America, is the second largest privately traded water and sewer company in the United State, with operations in 13 states. The company serves 3 million customers, including 117,000 in Florida. It's also one of the most consistently profitable corporations in the nation, having paid quarterly stockholder dividends for 65 years without interruption. "They're an investor-owned utility – just like Progress Energy and Verizon," said Bruce Kennedy, utilities director for Pasco County. "They're in business to make money."
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."
* * * * *The PSC approved a rate increase for Aqua Utilities in 2009, but the company applied for another increase a year later. In the application, Aqua executives said they need the rate increase to pay for $12 million in capital improvements. Another reason is that since the 2009 rate increase, Aqua's customers have reduced their water consumption by some 16 percent. Hundreds of customers have installed private irrigation wells – including 136 in one community.
"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

The stories about shady business practices at Aqua America (in Texas, Florida, North Carolina, etc.) just keep rolling in.  

In our own state, the regulator for the TCEQ whose job it is to decide rate increases is MARRIED to the head of Aqua Texas for our area.

This certainly brings new credence to the notion of government "being in bed with" business in Texas!

 

Ethics complaint filed against Florida water rates regulator for socializing with Aqua America employee while negotiating their rate increase request

  Palm Beach Post, Mar 18, 2011 | by SUSAN SALISBURY

An ethics complaint has been filed against Florida Public Service Commission Chairman Art Graham for allegedly socializing with officials from a water utility that has a rate increase case pending before the commission.

Frank Reams, a Zephyrhills resident, said in a complaint filed Tuesday with the Florida Commission on Ethics that Graham spent an hour conversing over drinks with Aqua America Inc. regional president Christopher Franklin and regulatory counsel Kimberly Joyce.
They were talking in the Renaissance Hotel lobby on Feb. 15 during a national Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners Conference in Washington, the complaint states.

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Bryn Mawr, Pa.-based Aqua America's subsidiary Aqua Utilities Florida Inc. has about 16,000 customers in 17 Florida counties, including roughly 1,200 Lake Osborne Estates residents west of Lake Worth.
The company doubled Lake Osborne's rates in 2009 and is seeking another 30 percent increase this year.

Graham could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Reams said Graham did not attend customer meetings the PSC held in October in half a dozen cities where customers asked that the rates not be raised. He filed the complaint after reading news reports that stated Graham and Aqua officials talked for an hour.

While he is not an Aqua customer, Reams said a couple of people at his church are and he became concerned because they cannot afford to pay more for water.

"They have a pending case. They will be deliberating on the 24th of May. We hope to have a bus-load of people at that agenda conference," Reams said.

Graham, a former Jacksonville city councilman, was appointed to the commission in July.

Florida law states that a commissioner must avoid impropriety in all of his activities and must act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the commission.

The Commission on Ethics will set out to determine whether the complaint indicates a possible violation of any law. If so, its staff will start an investigation.

~susan_salisbury@pbpost.com

Aqua Texas and their playbook for water privatization

Aqua Texas, Woodcreek's overpriced monopoly water supplier, is the poster child for water privatization in America today.  Food and Water Watch uses Aqua America, Aqua Texas's parent company, to show how it is done...to you.

 

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/reports/aqua-america/

 

October 14th, 2008

Aqua America

Executive Summary
Aqua America is the second largest publicly traded water and wastewater corporation based in the United States. It has pushed its way to the top through a strategy of aggressive acquisitions and drastic rate increases.
Aiming to make several dozen acquisitions a year, the company targets smaller systems to avoid a citizenry armed with resources to fight the takeover. And it pursues systems in states that have fast growing populations, corporate friendly regulatory environments and considerable investment needs.
Of course, all of this is done with an eye toward its bottom line.
Not long after taking over a system, the company begins its almost continual process of increasing rates. In just the first nine months of 2007, the company increased rates in nine locations. It has nine additional rate increases pending and plans even more over the course of 2008.
While families see skyrocketing water bills, the company sees booming revenue growth: 13 percent in 2007 alone. But rather than reinvesting all the money from community bills into improving their water and sewer systems, as a public utility would do – the company is delivering solid returns to its shareholders.”

Read the full report online

Discontent is growing among its customers, and many communities are beginning to speak up. In some cases, they even are kicking out Aqua America and reclaiming public control over their vital water and sewer infrastructure.
Aqua America is failing to protect the public interest. Instead of private control of their water systems, communities need a national trust fund for clean and safe water. Federal support for public utilities will do what Aqua America has not done: A trust fund will help ensure families across the country have access to clean, safe and affordable water.

Download the PDF
Number of Pages: 15  Year Published: 2008

 

Well, here is our old friend Aqua America at work gouging residents for water in another American community.

This company is not a good neighbor no matter where you find them operating.

NEWS

Aqua America: The Private Water Utility Draining North Carolina 

 

http://news.change.org/stories/aqua-america-the-private-water-utility-draining-north-carolina

by Jess Leber · February 23, 2011

Topics:

• Environmental Health ·
• Water

Clean drinking water is a basic human need. So what happens when a family's monthly water bill costs more than its family share cell phone plan?
Such is the absurd situation faced by families who must pay Aqua North Carolina—the state's largest private (read: for-profit) water utility—for their drinking water and sewer service.  Not only do these customers pay more than $100, sometimes more than $150 a month for their water, they are already paying twice as much as families lucky enough to live in the service area of public, municipal water systems in place like Raleigh and Charlotte.
Here is the last straw: Aqua North Carolina is now seeking approval for its 2nd rate increase (20% for water, 16% for sewer) in three years. The company, a division of Aqua America, the second-largest private water supplier in the nation, a corporation that just gave out 15 cent quarterly dividends on its stock and has given out a dividend every year of its 65 year history, claims it is still not making its legally-allowed levels of profit from these customers. The rate case reads straight out of their playbook, detailed in a 2008 report by Food & Water Watch: “Aqua America – Strategies of a Water Profiteer."
North Carolina residents who are held hostage to this supplier have had enough. They are raising hell across the state and are mounting an organized campaign and protest to convince state regulators to rein in this case of "a monopoly run wild," as one outraged business customer puts it.
Wayne Hancock, president of the Hampton Ridge Neighbors, a Aqua-serviced subdivision near Raleigh, read about this increase in The Charlotte Observer and started a petition on Change.org to voice his disapproval to the utility commission. (Sign the petition to the right or click here). Hancock, who frequently pays $150/month for his summer water bill, is particularly bothered that Aqua is citing "declining per customer use" as one justification for the rate hike. "This is one of those real Catch-22 situations. We heed our government, and they use our tax dollars to convince people to conserve water, especially when we have droughts. North Carolina customers should not be penalized for being good citizens and conserving our precious water supply," he told Change.org.
Hancock doesn't call himself a big-time activist. He is simply tired of being gouged, even as he looks into innovative reclaimed lawn watering systems to conserve and reduce his own bill.
He is joined by a growing number of Aqua North Carolina's 88,000 customers across the state. I also spoke with Juli Williams, a mother of 5, and another Aqua customer leading the charge. She and a small band of Aqua customers are busy doing research and mobilizing homeowners associations across the state in preparation for a hearing (date undecided) on the case. Last time, when Aqua filed for an increase in 2009, the public announcement came last-minute and buried. This time, they were looking out for it by checking the filings. You can follow their Facebook page Residents Against Aqua America by clicking on this link.
Ms. Williams shared with me the group's growing body of research on Aqua's shady practices (you can read one document here). Aqua's style is to "aggressively acquire" small water systems and then justify service hikes by citing upgrade and maintenance costs far higher than their competitors. "Aqua claims that they have higher investments to make to make because it serves smaller communities in N.C. including Pine Burr in Catawba County with just three customers. Why would any rationale company make an investment to serve three customers?" their document notes.
This campaign is an important example of a disturbing national trend. Private corporations, from companies such as Aqua America to bottlers such as Nestle, are increasingly controlling our critical water supplies. Companies by their nature are out to protect their bottom line, not the public's interest. Meanwhile, climate change, development and sprawl mean increasing drought and water scarcity in aquifers and rivers in many parts of this nation; North Carolina is at the top of that list.
Please sign the petition to support the case against Aqua North Carolina. This national corporation—with about 1 million customers nationwide—must know the public will stand up to its attempts to gouge our public water.
Follow Change.org’s Environment page on Facebook,  Twitter or RSS. Have a story tip? E-mail us at environmenttips@change.org.
Photo courtesy of Residents Against Aqua America

Jess Leber is a Change.org editor. She most recently covered climate and energy issues as a reporter in Washington, D.C

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HTGCD meeting on Feb. 21 at 1 o'clock in the afternoon in Dripping Springs

CITIZEN ALERT  about the next Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District meeting being held on Monday, February the 21st at ONE o'clock in the afternoon at the Dripping Springs City Hall at 511 Mercer Street

There is a game being played in Woodcreek North involving WIMBERLEY SPRINGS PARTNERS, AQUA TEXAS, AND THE HAYS TRINITY GROUNDWATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT (HTGCD)

Aqua Texas (private, for-profit utility company) and Wimberley Springs Partners (land-owner and developer) have become hand-in-glove partners in the Wimberley Valley. 

Now they want to become “hand-in-your-pocket” partners with a dense development proposed in Woodcreek North.  And joining right in are the three members of the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation? District (HTGCD), who form a voting majority block – President Jimmy Skipton, District 1; Mark Key, District 3; and Greg Nesbitt, District  2.

Here’s the game. Aqua Texas cannot get a discharge permit for its treated sewage so it sells gives its sewage (67 million gallons a year) to Wimberley Springs Partners (WSP) who uses it to water the Quicksand Golf Course that they own in the City of Woodcreek.  Nothing wrong here, except that WSP continues to pump 29 million gallons (six year average) of groundwater annually from six wells to water the golf course and none of that pumping has been permitted by the HTGCD.  WSP wants a permit and has been in negotiation with the HTGCD.

Now comes Wimberley Springs Partners with a desire to develop the property it has acquired in Woodcreek North (approximately 1300 unimproved lots).  They want to redevelop to urban, NOT HILL COUNTRY, density standards – one quarter acre lots with a few larger lots. They want to use Aqua Texas to provide water and sewer services.  Aqua Texas needs a guaranteed allocation of groundwater pumping from the HTGCD to be able to serve this high density development (the Ridge at Wimberley Springs is Phase One).  Lot owners would be required to connect to Aqua Texas - no rainwater collection systems there.

In order to provide sewer service to the proposed WSP development, Aqua Texas would need more land to apply treated sewage generated by the new homes that could be built on the lots developed and sold by WSP.  So WSP offers up their defunct golf course in Woodcreek North as a disposal site for the Aqua Texas sewage.  WSP also theorizes that they can market the dense development as “golf course” property.  WSP makes an impassioned appeal to the golfers in the Woodcreek community to support a second golf course and preserve the property values, etc. in Woodcreek.  We understand that an earlier survey yielded few Woodcreek golfers who would desire to play on a second golf course.

Now comes the development friendly, give-our-groundwater-away mentality of the three members of the HTGCD board – Skipton, Key, and Nesbitt.  They seem to be inclined to grant anything that Aqua Texas and WSP want even though Aqua Texas is a huge waster of groundwater in both Woodcreek North and the city of Woodcreek.  They ignore the fact that the Trinity Aquifer that they have pledged to conserve, preserve, and recharge is already being pumped to the max.  They ignore the State Mandated Groundwater Planning Process (Managed Available Groundwater – MAG) which later this spring will set the rate at which groundwater can be allocated by permit to suppliers like Aqua Texas and Wimberley Water Supply.  They are prepared to give away three year permits without any scientific basis even before the MAG is available.

So how does the game play out?  If WSP is given the permit it wants to develop the second golf course within its proposed high density development, its consumption of precious groundwater will increase by 275% to 80 million gallons annually.  During normal rainfall years the WSP permit could increase by 550% to 160 million gallons annually to develop the new golf course.  If sales of new lots and home construction are slow and treated sewage is not available from Aqua Texas (very likely), the only method available to keep the second golf course alive would be more groundwater pumping.  The result would be depletion of the aquifer, more wells going dry, and Jacob’s Well and Cypress Creek diminished.

Aqua Texas wants a permit that will allow it the same amount of groundwater it currently pumps, even though it only sells 60% of the water it pumps.  Forty percent is wasted.  Aqua says it plans to begin repairing the leaky lines within Woodcreek and Woodcreek North.  Over the next several years this five million dollar repair cost would be passed on to Aqua Texas customers resulting in higher than ever utility bills. As Aqua Texas repairs the leaks, it wants to use the water it saves to serve the new customers created by the Wimberley Springs Partners dense, urban style development.  This new development would be built over a prime recharge area of the Trinity Aquifer and could diminish recharge of the aquifer. Think also how downstream flooding would increase during heavy rains.

So the game for Aqua Texas is growth of its system, higher rates, and bigger profits.  The game for Wimberley Springs Partners is possible big profits from sales of dense, urban style lots to a mass builder like K B Homes. The game for the trio of the HTGCD is unclear except that each of them has a stake in growth and development within Hays County.  Skipton owns 137 undeveloped AG acres in western Hays County.  Key has a utility construction business.  Nesbitt is a utility and septic system contractor.

The game for current and future Hill Country land owners and residents would be lower aquifer levels, diminished spring flows (and a dry Cypress Creek), possible lower property values as groundwater is ever more scarce, and increased congestion on our roads. 

Friends, this is another True Ranch, but with multiple players.  We need to rise up and tell all our elected officials (especially our city, county, and HTGCD officials) that the game is off.  We don’t want the high density development proposed by Wimberley Springs Partners.  We don’t want a second golf course that will drain our aquifer.  We do want Aqua Texas to fix the sorry system that they have allowed to rot away and we do want Aqua to pay the tab using the exorbitant profits they make off the Woodcreek and Woodcreek North systems.  And we want to HTGCD trio to back off and stop offering to give away our precious groundwater.

You know the people to contact – Aqua Texas Brent Rhee; Winton Porterfield with WSP; Hays County Commissioner Will Conley and Judge Bert Cobb; the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District Directors; the Board Members of the Woodcreek POA; and City of Woodcreek Mayor Eric Eskelund and City Council.

Plan to attend the HTGCD meeting in Dripping Springs at 1:00 pm on Monday, February 21^st during which these issues will be considered. Please attend and express your concerns.

Jim McMeans

jrmcmeans@msn.com

512-847-6578