Jun 23 2020
Essential Utilities Inc. announced today its Pennsylvania subsidiary acquired the approximately 5,000-connection wastewater assets of East Norriton Township in Montgomery County for $21 million.
"We're pleased to add the East Norriton community to our growing wastewater footprint in Southeastern Pennsylvania," said Essential CEO Chris Franklin. "We're looking forward to putting our engineering and construction expertise to work to complete roughly $16 million in capital work over the next 10 years."
Aqua Pennsylvania Wastewater President Marc Lucca said, "We are excited to welcome the customers of the East Norriton community and look forward to providing them excellent wastewater service that will meet customer expectations and protect the environment. We believe our planned infrastructure improvements will target sanitary sewer overflows and reduce extraneous flows by replacing, lining and repairing portions of the sewer collection system, and upgrading several pump stations. These capital projects will significantly improve operational efficiency and environmental conditions. These will yield cost savings over time and improve customer service."
East Norriton was acquired under Pennsylvania's Act 12, fair market valuation legislation, which encourages consolidation in a fragmented water and wastewater industry, allowing resources to be shared among a larger service area, ultimately benefiting utility customers.
The acquisition is the second for Essential's water and wastewater division this year. In January, Aqua Ohio purchased the City of Campbell's water treatment plant and distribution system, which serves about 3,200 connections in Mahoning County, for $7.5 million.
Aqua Pennsylvania recently received conditional acceptance of its application to acquire the wastewater assets of the Delaware County Regional Water Quality Control Authority (DELCORA) for $276.5 million, from the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.
DELCORA serves a population of approximately 500,000 people in 42 municipalities in Southeast Pennsylvania. Once completed, it would be the largest municipal transaction for Aqua America and the largest water/wastewater municipal transaction in Pennsylvania's history.
Source: https://www.essential.co/home