Bucks schedules public meetings next week on plan to sell county sewer system
The public meetings will set the stage for a decision by BCWSA on whether to accept Aqua Pennsylvania's $1.1 billion offer for its sewer system.
The Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority (BCWSA) has scheduled “open house” meetings on Tuesday in Perkasie and in Newtown to hear public sentiment on its proposed $1.1 billion sale of the county’s sewer system to Aqua Pennsylvania.
BCWSA’s board voted 3-1 on July 13 to grant Aqua Pennsylvania the exclusive right to negotiate a sales agreement for the county’s public sewer system, which serves about 75,000 households in the Philadelphia suburbs. After debt and expenses are paid down, the sale would net the county about $1 billion, though it could mean substantially higher sewer rates for customers in the future.
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If the authority accepts Aqua’s formal offer, it would be the largest privatization ever of a U.S. public wastewater system.
The board reviewed offers in private for several months from Aqua and its rival, Pennsylvania American Water, before announcing it had chosen Aqua’s formal offer to move forward. It says it won’t make a decision until it hears from the public.
“The public open house events on Tuesday will include several stations with Aqua reps available to [answer] questions about services and operations,” Brian Dries, a vice president for Ceisler Media & Issue Advocacy, which is acting as spokesperson for BCWSA, said in an e-mail. “Aqua and BCWSA reps will address attendees and provide Q&A.”
The first meeting will be held from 10 a.m. to noon on Tuesday in the North Building’s Great Room at the Bucks County Community College-Perkasie, at 1 Hillendale Rd, Perkasie, Pa.
The second meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Rollins Center’s Gallagher Room at the Bucks County Community College-Newtown Campus, 275 Swamp Rd., Newtown, Pa.
BCWSA has also scheduled a closed meeting for 4 p.m. Monday at the community college’s Newtown campus for representatives of towns served by BCWSA. The event is not open to the media or the public, Dries said.
“Before we make any decision on this offer, we want our municipal partners to have an opportunity to review the offer, hear from Aqua Pennsylvania representatives, and provide us with valuable feedback,” BCWSA Chair John Cordisco said in a letter obtained by The Inquirer to the RSVP-only event.
Under Aqua’s proposal, current sewer rates would be frozen for a year. But in the coming years, rates would eventually increase to match Aqua’s rates, which are now about $88 compared with BCWSA’s average monthly rate of $48. The precise impact is unclear because BCWSA suggests that some of the sale proceeds could be used to soften the rate impact.
BCWSA has posted Aqua’s offer on a website, bcwsacommitment.org, but has not posted any of its financial analysis on rate implications.
The deal would be the largest privatization undertaken in Pennsylvania since the state in 2016 passed new rules encouraging private ownership of public water and sewer systems. The new rule has generated a surge in private investment in water and wastewater systems, and a corresponding increase in utility rates.
Aqua Pennsylvania, a subsidiary of Essential Utilities Inc. in Bryn Mawr, initially offered about $600 million for all BCWSA operations. After the authority’s appraiser valued both the water and wastewater systems at $1.4 billion, BCWSA indicated it was interested only in taking offers for the sewer system.