Chester Water Authority Flushes $250 Million Offer Down the Drain

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Chester Water System
Despite an offer of $250 million, the Chester Water Authority will not sell its system to Aqua America in the interest of protecting customers. Image of the Chester Water Authority via Eastern Environmental Contractors.

The Chester Water Authority is flushing down the drain a $250 million bid for the public utility in order to protect customers.

“Our obligation is to act in the best interest of the ratepayers,” said Solicitor Frank Catania in a Philadelphia Inquirer report by Joseph DiStefano.

Under a new state law passed last year, Aqua America offered to buy the system that serves 44,000 homes and businesses in the Aston, Chester, and Glen Mills areas of the county.

But at 5,000-gallon rates of $35 downhill and $42 uphill, Chester Water is less expensive than neighboring for-profit water systems, like the $59 for Artesian Water Co., $65 for Aqua Pennsylvania and $71 for Pennsylvania-American Water, the article explained.

Chester Water is financially healthy and has access to inexpensive financing. Last year, it collected $43 million and employed 165 people.

American Water has also expressed interest in bidding on the Chester Water system.

Read more about the decision of the Chester Water Authority not to sell in the Philadelphia Inquirer here.

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