Opinion

Why I voted to retain American Water

Posted

Editor’s note: Reinhardt is the Town of Hempstead’s water commissioner, and he was a board member of the Water Authority of Southeast Nassau County, which was dissolved last week.

Water is a necessity of life, of this there is no debate. When the subject turns to who provides that water to us and at what cost, there the debate begins.

For the past five years, the Water Authority of Southeast Nassau County, an authority of which I was a board member, held a series of public meetings to discuss this issue with the residents who receive their water from New York American Water. Recently, the authority’s board voted to retain the company that is supplying our water, rather than pursue the potential purchase of the company by the authority.

There were many things for me, as a board member, to consider before making this vote, and I would like to take the opportunity to share some of them with you so that you may better understand the reason behind my decision.

I would like to start with a little history. Our authority was first formed by the New York State Legislature in 1990 and came into existence in 1991. At that time five different board members sat in our seats. These board members held a series of public meetings and hired professionals to perform valuation and feasibility studies to determine whether ratepayers could realize a savings though the public purchase of the then New York Water Service.

After several years, and after careful consideration of the studies, the board determined that given the high acquisition cost of the company and the debt that would be incurred to make the purchase, there would be no savings to ratepayers, but rather an increase in total costs to cover the debt service. At that time the board took no further action and stopped meeting.

Nearly 15 years later the new owners of our water system, Aqua America, applied to the New York State Public Service Commission for a substantial rate hike, nearly 25 percent, including all requested charges and increases. At this time hundreds of resident attended local hearings of the PSC to express their outrage. When the smoke cleared, the PSC granted Aqua a 12 percent increase over three years.

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