Town Officials Hail Aquarion Acquisition Of United Water Utility

By John Voket

First Selectman Pat Llodra and Health District Director Donna Culbert both reacted positively Wednesday to news that a pending acquisition of a local water utility had been completed.

United Water Connecticut, Inc, which served customers in Newtown and neighboring communities, announced September 4 that it had completed the sale of its regulated water operations in Connecticut to Aquarion Water Company of Bridgeport.

The $38.5 million transaction was approved by the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA), according to a media statement from United Water.

“I’m very happy to see this completed,” said Mrs Llodra.

Mrs Llodra said that immediately following the notice of acquisition she was informed by the Connecticut PURA that all work to supply potable water to Brookfield’s Greenridge subdivision was completed and online. There are a handful of Greenridge residences within the borders of Newtown.

With the completion of the acquisition, Aquarion will be responsible for all aspects of water delivery to Greenridge residents. Controversy over supplying a fresh public water supply to the neighborhood developed just weeks after Mrs Llodra took office for her first term.

United Water was in the early stages of excavating for a water line to connect the subdivision with Newtown’s Pootatuck Aquifer when Mrs Llodra and other community leaders objected and temporarily halted the project. PURA subsequently determined that the Greenridge area would be better served by water service tied to aquifers in Brookfield.

Ms Culbert said from a health official’s perspective, she was pleased to see Aquarion become the largest corporate water utility supplying Newtown residents. Besides United Water, Aquarion also acquired two other family-owned water utilities — the Olmstead and Chestnut Tree Hill Water Companies, both in January 2011 — leaving just a few very small community systems left operating in town.

Those community water companies provide water to the Fairfield Hills campus and neighboring facilities, Masonicare at Newtown, two mobile home parks, and a seasonal water company serving seasonal users in the Cedarhurst neighborhood around Lakeview Terrace. In all, Ms Culbert said about 25 percent of Newtown consumers receive water service from a public or community water company versus from private or neighborhood wells.

Ms Culbert said having a water company as large as Aquarion serving the bulk of public water supply customers in Newtown was good news for her agency as well as all the utility’s customers.

“We know now that we have a highly skilled, experienced and reliable operator connected to these water systems,” Ms Culbert said. “If there is a concern, they will be able to react quickly, as well as continuing to maintain and improve the infrastructure while spreading the costs of those improvements across their entire customer base, significantly minimizing the cost to their Newtown users.”

Bertrand Camus, chief executive officer of United Water, said the sale is consistent with his company’s strategy to optimize its portfolio of regulated companies and municipal contracts. A subsidiary of Suez Environment, United Water’s regulated operations in Connecticut represent only one percent of the company’s total regulated revenues.

“This divestiture will enable capital reallocation,” he said. “In addition, customers will benefit from being part of a large, well-respected regulated water services provider.”

United Water provided domestic water services to about 24,000 people in the towns of New Milford, Newtown, Brookfield, Bethel, and Woodbury. Aquarion Water Company of Connecticut serves more than 625,000 people in 47 cities and towns throughout Fairfield, New Haven, Hartford, Litchfield, Middlesex, and New London Counties.

“We have been privileged to serve regulated customers in Connecticut,” said Mr Camus said in the release. “Over the years, United Water made significant investments to improve water quality, service and reliability which will serve these communities well into the future.”

He added that United Water will maintain a strong presence in Connecticut through its public-private partnerships with the municipalities of Newtown, Killingly, Ridgefield, Sharon, Stonington, and Weston. United Water will also continue to serve customers in New England through several water and wastewater operations, according to Mr Camus.

United Water had served Newtown “for decades,” according to Ms Culbert, and was previously known as the Newtown Water Company. According to reports, Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux completed acquiring United Water Resources (UWR) in 2000.

At the time, Global Water Intelligence, a trade publication for the global water industry, stated that UWR was the second largest water distribution company in the United States.