State regulators should reject Scranton’s appeal of recent water and sewage-disposal rate hikes because they already rejected the same city arguments, the water company argues in newly filed papers.
Pennsylvania American Water Co. says the city’s Aug. 7 request for reconsideration doesn’t present any “new and novel argument, not previously heard” or mention anything the state Public Utility Commission overlooked.
“The petition simply rehashes the same arguments advanced in Mayor (Paige) Cognetti’s testimony and in the city’s (legal) brief, which were rejected in the (rate hike) order,” company lawyer Kenneth M. Kulak wrote.
On July 11, the commission granted Pennsylvania American rate water and sewage disposal rate hikes worth about $99.3 million, less than half the almost $202.4 million the company requested in November. Of the $99.3 million, $88.1 million was for water, or 10.74% more than existing rates, and $11.2 million was for sewage disposal, or 6.47% more.
In the reconsideration request, city solicitor Jessica Eskra acknowledged the “new and novel argument” standard but says the standard doesn’t require new evidence.
Eskra contends the rate hikes shouldn’t go into effect in the state’s northeast until the commission finishes its investigation into complaints of unaffordable, dirty, cloudy, smelly and rust-contaminated and otherwise deficient water.
The commission agreed to take up the city’s reconsideration request Aug. 12 but allowed the rates to go into effect Aug. 7 as approved.
Numerous residents testified about water quality and affordability at Jan. 30 public hearings on the hikes. In approving the hikes, the commission said it would investigate water quality.
In her statement on the rate hikes, Commissioner Kathryn L. Zerfuss, who attended hearings in Scranton, pointed out no one asked the commission to impose a limit on when the water company could ask for higher rates again.
Besides the latest hike, the PUC approved Pennsylvania American rate hikes in February 2021 and December 2022.
On the day the PUC approved the hikes, commission vice chair Kimberly M. Barrow, the only no vote, lamented the frequency of rate hike requests.
She called Pennsylvania American “a world-class operator” because of its management and know-how, but said maybe the company has concentrated too much on buying up government-owned water and sewage disposal systems like Scranton’s and “shirked its obligations to deliver that best-in-class service to all parts of the system, such as the city of Scranton, Dunmore, Carbondale."
“I hope that’s not the case, but time will tell,” Barrow said.
Zerfuss voted for the hikes, but Eskra wrote the city took her remarks as inspiration to ask for a delay of higher rates until the water-quality investigation is over. She also cited the company’s pollution of Roaring Brook with sediment during a spring dam repair project.
The water company argues the city never supplies any justification for delaying the rate hikes. The city doesn’t show why the sediment release should be considered as new evidence in the rate case either, Kulak wrote.
“The city is simply asking the commission, for a second time, to deny any rate increase for Scranton-area customers due to quality-of-service concerns, a position the Commission thoroughly considered and properly rejected,” Kulak wrote.
Out of all the complaints filed against the rate hike, only the city has asked for reconsideration. It's unclear when the commission might rule.
“There’s no specific timetable for the commission’s review of the petition for reconsideration,” PUC spokesman Nils Hagen-Frederiksen wrote in an email.
Pennsylvania American, the largest water and sewage disposal provider in the state, serves 681,707 water and 97,585 sewage disposal customers in 37 counties, according to the PUC.
