New entity Aquarion Water Authority should be required to protect water company land as a condition of approval
New Haven, CT — Save the Sound is testifying before the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) regarding a joint application for a change of control filed by Aquarion Water Authority (AWA), South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority (RWA), and Eversource Energy. The application seeks PURA’s approval to transfer ownership of and control over the Aquarion Water Company (Aquarion) to the newly created AWA, which could impact nearly 2,000 acres of non-water system land currently owned by Aquarion.
PURA will be conducting an evidentiary hearing on the proposed transaction beginning today, July 24, and continuing next Monday, July 28, at its headquarters in New Britain, CT. Save the Sound attorneys and expert witnesses will participate.
Save the Sound’s written testimony, submitted ahead of the hearing, recommends that PURA condition any approval on the disposition of certain Aquarion-owned lands to the state, relevant municipalities, and local/regional land trusts. Such a condition will fulfill the purpose of the strong conservation incentives in PURA’s statutory directive and the RWA and AWA charters. The testimony also recommends that PURA ensure AWA follows RWA’s longstanding practice of working with conservation partners to purchase and conserve thousands of acres of privately-owned land as open space to protect watershed land and drinking water supply.
“Water companies are the second largest total owners of forested open space of the state, second only to the State of Connecticut,” said Curt Johnson, who testified on behalf of Save the Sound. Johnson, a former president of the regional environmental organization, helped craft and pass state legislation to strengthen protections for water company land. “Open space adjacent to rivers, particularly forestland, provides water quality benefits and helps to purify and protect water supplies. In addition, these lands provide critical habitat to wildlife species who depend on larger, contiguous forest blocks as habitat.”
“Save the Sound appreciates the efforts of both RWA and Aquarion in upholding conservation values. However, we want to ensure that, moving forward, AWA will hold themselves to the same standards,” said Chase Lindemann, Save the Sound’s Peter B. Cooper Legal Fellow. “This is an opportunity to safeguard precious open space from future development and secure commitments towards the continuation of water company land conservation.”
If PURA approves the sale, the standards and regulations that had previously governed Aquarion’s assets will be altered. As a privately held water company, Aquarion has been regulated by PURA; however, the newly created AWA will not be subject to PURA oversight. The proposed sale would give AWA control over all of Aquarion’s assets, thereby removing those assets from PURA oversight.
Save the Sound recommends that PURA, as a condition of the sale, order AWA to place conservation easements on all Class III land currently owned by Aquarion and its subsidiary Torrington Water Company that is greater than ten acres or that provides other conservation value. Save the Sound also recommends that AWA be required, as a condition of the sale, to work with partners to purchase private lands that become available within its drinking water watershed, in proportion to RWA’s track record in this regard.
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