SAVE THE RESERVOIR
Save Octoraro Reservoir
Our small-town way of life is under attack. Our much loved Octoraro Reservoir that we use for boating, fishing, hiking, hunting and more will be lost without your help. Chester Water Authority (CWA) is under attack in a hostile corporate takeover attempt by the company formerly known as Aqua America (now being re-branded as Essential Utilities, Inc.).
As a community, we have everything to lose and nothing to gain by this sale. The sale will result in loss of the Octoraro reservoir, loss of open space, higher rates for public water, and loss of control of our water source. The company formerly known as Aqua America is a for-profit, publicly traded corporation; it’s beholden to shareholders and profits. CWA is a non-profit municipal authority; it’s beholden to clean water and us!
With your help, we will stop the sale.
Together, we will SAVE THE RESERVOIR!
Lastest Updates:
Bankrupt Chester is expected to make $520K payments to lawyers.
At the August 9th Chester City Council meeting, Mayor Kirkland in his public comments told the audience that the Receiver, Michael Doweary, has served the City with a bill for $520,000 for the legal and consulting fees owed to professionals working on behalf of one of the City's creditors, the retiree committee in the Chapter 9 bankruptcy case. (And this 520k bill is climbing with each passing day!)
Despite threatening the City with disincorporation in April, Doweary is now authorizing the city to pay $100,000 a month to their creditor's lawyers.
In the brief made to the bankruptcy court by the retiree committee requesting reimbursement, they state that neither the DCED nor the Commonwealth has given the City any funds to help pay these bills and flatly refused any proposal for funding strategies they offered. Why is the DCED not helping the City at all?
CORRECTION TO EMAIL NEWSLETTER:
Please use this email for Rick Siger: fsiger@pa.gov
Phone: 717-720-1366
So sorry on the confusion!
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About CWA
The Chester Water Authority (CWA) is an award-winning, municipal authority dating back over 150 years and serves over 200,000 people (about 49,000 customers) in Delaware and Chester Counties. The CWA is run by a nine-member board comprised of 3 members from Chester City, 3 from the surrounding Delaware County, and 3 from Chester County. The CWA has an outstanding reputation as a well-managed and well-maintained municipal authority.
Only 19% of CWA’s customer base is in the city of Chester; 81% of customers are located elsewhere in Delaware and Chester counties.
In addition the CWA has won many awards, including:
- Game Changer Award from the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey
- The Chester Water Authority's (CWA) Octoraro treatment plant has been selected to receive the prestigious Area Wide Optimization Program (AWOP) Award for the 8th consecutive year
- Excellence in Water Treatment Award from Partnership for Safe Water
- George Warren Fuller Award from the American Water Works Association
The CWA board has faithfully looked out for its ratepayers, unanimously rejecting Aqua's unsolicited offer in 2017. The board continues to advocate for ratepayers in keeping CWA a public, non-profit, utility.
Why Would Aqua Want to Buy CWA?
It’s simple. Money. Land. And ultimately Power. Make no mistake about it. Aqua America (Essential Utilities) is a Water Profiteer. All across the United Sates, communities, like ours, are fighting to reclaim their water rights by attempting to forcibly remove Aqua America. We are lucky. We have the opportunity to Save CWA and Save Ourselves NOW before it’s too late!
Facts:
- CWA owns over 2000 acres of valuable land assets that can be sold for development. Say goodbye to the Octoraro Reservoir and open space.
- As ratepayers, we are built-in company equity. Once the CWA is purchased, raising our rates means raising Aqua’s profits.
- Aqua’s goal is to own all the pipes in our Pennsylvania ground. They have made deals to own: water, sewer, and natural gas pipes.
Consequences of a Sale
Loss of Access to the Octoraro Reservoir
CWA owns the two-billion-gallon Octoraro Reservoir. From fishing and hiking to boating and kayaking, the reservoir is free and open to the community for enjoyment and recreation. As with its other acquisitions such as the Springton Reservoir in Delaware County, it can be expected that Aqua America will fence-off the reservoir from the community and prohibit recreational activities.
Loss of Open Space
CWA has significant land holdings. They maintain over 2000 acres of land that protects our water source and watershed. This untouched land creates our community’s bucolic setting that is much loved and sought after. It is also the home to wildlife, including bald eagles, herons, wild turkeys and more. Based on its well-documented history, Aqua America will likely parcel and sell these land holdings for private homes and commercial businesses.
Rates Will Increase
In every acquisition it has made, Aqua America hikes up water bills through rapid-fire rate increases and infrastructure surcharges.
Loss of Power Over Our Water
Probably the ultimate loss is the community’s loss over its water. Pure, clean water is a limited, precious resource that is guaranteed to Pennsylvanians by our state constitution. As trustee of these natural resources, our government should preserve them and not sell them to profit-driven companies.
Timeline of the Attempted Hostile Takeover
Passage of Act 12
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.
Aqua's Unsolicited Bid
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.
CWA's Attempts to Protect Our Water and Us
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.
City of Chester in Critical Financial Distress
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.
New Legislation Introduced
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.
City of Chester Declares Bankruptcy
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.
Support for CWA from Community Leaders
Resolutions and Letters of Support
Chester County
Chester County Commissioners
East Marlborough Township
East Nottingham Township
Franklin Township
Borough of Kennett Square
Kennett Township
Londonderry Township
London Grove Township
London Grove Township Municipal Authority
Lower Oxford Township
New London Township
Oxford Borough
Penn Township
Thornbury Township
Upper Oxford Township
West Nottingham Township
State Representatives
Carolyn Comitta (D) former 156th Legislative
Bryan Cutler (R) 100th Legislative
Brian Kirkland (D) 159th Legislative
Leanne Krueger (D) 161st Legislative
John Lawrence (R) 13th Legislative
Chris Quinn (R) 168th Legislative
Christina Sappey (D) 158th Legislative
Craig Williams (R) 160th Legislative
Organizations
Avondale Fire Company
Backcountry Hunters and Anglers - PA Chapter
Brandywine Conservancy
Cochranville Fire Company
Conservation Voters of PA
Elk Creeks Watershed Association
Kennett Fire Company
Lancaster Conservancy
Longwood Fire Company
Oxford Region Planning Committee
S.A.V.E.
Support CWA at the Following Events
Please note: Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the public events below are most likely cancelled.
Stay In Touch.
Please sign up to be kept informed of the latest developments and upcoming events. Email with any questions: savecwa@chesterwater.com
from the Pennsylvania Constitution,
Article I, Section 27:
"The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania's public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people."