In 2016, Pennsylvania lawmakers in Harrisburg passed a piece of legislation, Act 12 (attached to House Bill 1326), that resulted in two consequences.

Legislation:
Private companies can offer to buy municipal authorities for more than they are worth.
Consequence:
Poorer communities are tempted to accept high dollar bids.

Legislation:
Municipal authorities no longer have to be in financial or operational distress to be purchased by private companies.
Consequence:
CWA is suddenly a target. It has never been in distress in its 150+ year history.

In 2017, just a year after Act 12 passed, Aqua made a $320M unsolicited bid to purchase the CWA. The CWA board unanimously rejected the offer. The board determined that there was no benefit to ratepayers from the sale. If CWA was sold, rates would go up and the public would lose access to the Octoraro Reservoir——a lose-lose situation. The CWA board's decision to reject this bid has saved ratepayers over $200M.

The City of Chester is in financial distress. In an attempt to protect CWA from future hostile takeover bids by private corporations and to support the City of Chester, CWA offered the city a one-time $60M payment in exchange for placing the authority in a trust for 40 years. The City of Chester never responded to this offer.

Aqua Sues CWA
Aqua buys water from CWA. As a corporate ratepayer, Aqua sued CWA. They did not want CWA to bail out the City of Chester with the $60M offer making the city solvent and less susceptible to accepting a corporate buyout.
Note: In court proceedings between the City of Chester and CWA, the City of Chester is supported by Aqua's legal counsel.

In February, the City of Chester put out a Request for Proposals for the acquisition of the assets of CWA, despite CWA not being an asset of the City. The City receives 3 bids: Aqua Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania American Water, and CWA (repeating its offer from 2019).

COVID-19 struck and the City of Chester subsequently lost millions of dollars in revenue when the casino closed. On April 13, Governor Wolf placed the City of Chester into receivership with the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED). CWA issued a statement regarding this declaration.

On April 24, Delaware County Common Pleas Court Judge Spiros Angelos issued an order indicating any sale of CWA assets must be approved not only by the city, but also by Chester and Delaware counties, where the bulk of CWA's customers live. The City of Chester has appealed that ruling. The case went up to the Commonwealth Court, who heard oral arguments in the case en banc (all members, instead of just one judge or a small group of judges) in November. We are awaiting their decision.

In June, Speaker of the PA House, Rep. Mike Turzai retired to go work for Essential Utilities.

Because of activism of CWA ratepayers, legislation was introduced to the PA House. HB 2597 was introduced by Rep. John Lawrence (PA 13) in July. HB 2746 was introduced by Rep. Christina Sappey (PA 158) in August. Both of these bills were referred to the Consumer Affairs Committee. HB 2597 was given a hearing in September. Statements in the hearing were given by Cynthia Leitzell, CWA Chairperson, and  Karen Versuk, director of operations for Penn Township. Both bills died in committee without ever being brought up for a vote at the end of the 2020 legislative session.

Rep. Christina Sappey (PA-158) reintroduced her bill in the new legislative session (now named HB 144) and Rep. John Lawrence (PA-13) has re-introduced his bill (now HB 97). Both have again been referred to the Consumer Affairs Committee. Sen. John Kane (SD-9) has introduced a companion bill to Rep. Sappey's bill in the PA senate, SB 452.

In April, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of CWA in the RTKL (Right-to-Know Law) case. The court declared that communications between DCED and third parties/consultants are not privileged and therefore they will have to reveal those documents to CWA. In May, a bi-partisan hearing co-chaired by Rep. Lawrence and Rep. Krueger drew attention to Section 1329 of Title 66 (better known as Act 12). Discussion surrounded whether this law should be amended to pertain only to distressed water systems, not healthy systems like CWA.

In September, the Commonwealth Court ruled that Chester City has the ability to dissolve CWA. The narrow ruling did not answer other questions about assets or ownership and returned the case to the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas to continue litigating those issues. CWA has appealed the Commonwealth Court decision to the PA Supreme Court. On September 29, Reps Kreuger and Lawrence introduced HB 1936 to Amend Act 12 to only pertain to distressed systems. The bill was referred to the Consumer Affairs Committee.

On Oct. 13, Chester City Council unanimously passed a resolution asking the Receiver to allow them to enter into an Asset Purchase Agreement with Aqua. CWA promptly sued City Council stating  that it violated the Sunshine Act by not making the Asset Purchase Agreement available for public review and comment prior to the vote. CWA asked the court to honor the stay that is in place.

In February, through Right-to-Know (RTK) requests, CWA obtains a draft of the Asset Purchase Agreement (APA) that the DCED, Governor's Office, Chester Receiver, City of Chester and AQUA have been secretly negotiating since mid-2020. In the APA, there is NO mention of rate freezes or rate stability funds, NO mention of protecting the reservoir. Further RTK requests reveal email exchanges that the Governor's Office and DCED have a policy in place to attempt to sell the water and sewer assets of distressed communities in order to resolve pension debts. Also in February, Rep. John Lawrence confronts newly-appointed Acting DCED secretary, Neil Weaver, at a budget hearing.

In April, the PA Supreme Court decided to hear CWA's petition appeal. Oral arguments are scheduled for November 30.

In September, CWA submitted a letter to the Environmental Justice Advisory Board of the DEP requesting them to hold state-wide public hearings on water affordability, making the case for water justice because Big Water privatization deals disproportionally affect the lives of Black people and People of Color.

In November, the DCED-Appointed Receiver for the City of Chester submits an Amended Recovery Plan for the City of Chester, asking the Commonwealth Court to give him sole control over City Authorities. Two days later, the Receiver files for bankruptcy in federal court. This puts a stay on state cases, including the PA Supreme Court case that was scheduled for Nov 30. He also files a motion to have the stay lifted on the Commonwealth Court case ONLY (with the Amended Recovery Plan, which CWA is not a party to). This Robbery in Progress is a developing story.