Aqua America buys troubled Pa. water system
Aqua America Inc.'s Pennsylvania subsidiary, Aqua Pennsylvania Inc., has completed the acquisition of the Emlenton Water Co., which serves about 1,200 people in portions of Venango and Clarion Counties in Western Pennsylvania, in a transaction valued at $475,000.
Aqua America Inc.'s Pennsylvania subsidiary, Aqua Pennsylvania Inc., has completed the acquisition of the Emlenton Water Co., which serves about 1,200 people in portions of Venango and Clarion Counties in Western Pennsylvania, in a transaction valued at $475,000.
Aqua Pennsylvania has been operating the troubled utility under an emergency order from the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission since Nov. 21.. Since that time, Aqua Pennsylvania has had full operational control of Emlenton's water supply treatment plant and distribution system. Emlenton customers have been on a boil water order since April 29, 2008 as a result of several issues - including intestinal parasites that weren't being removed by the water system's filtering process - that had people needing to boil their water.
"We are pleased that the PUC came to us and that we were able to help the former owners of Emlenton and their customers," said Nicholas DeBenedictis, Aqua America chairman and chief executive. "Now that we have ownership of the system, we will invest what it takes to get customers off of the boil order as quickly as possible."
Company shares ended the morning at $20.18, up $1.18 (6.21 percent).