Aquarion Agrees to Buy Bethel Water System for $7.2M

Bethel’s Board of Selectmen and Public Utilities Commission (PUC) reached an agreement with Aquarion Water Company Tuesday to sell the town’s water infrastructure and management for $7.2 million, pending approvals from local boards and state regulators, as well as Bethel voters.

A public hearing on the sale will be scheduled in the near future, according to First Selectman Matthew Knickerbocker, before the proposal goes to the Board of Finance and Planning and Zoning Commission and ultimately the voters at a special town meeting.

If approved, the sale and transfer of assets would take approximately three to six months and be subject to approval by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) and Department of Public Health (DPH).

In the rate proposal currently before both state agencies, Aquarion would continue to bill residents according to the five-year rate schedule established by the Bethel PUC in 2011, after which rates would be set by PURA.

Along with the sale price, Knickerbock also noted that adding the infrastructure and equipment to the tax rolls will net the town approximately $110,000 annually in additional tax revenue.

In a press announcement Tuesday, Knickerbocker listed the following reasons for the Board of Selectmen’s support of the sale:

• The need to increase the town’s water supply to support economic development:  Bethel’s ability to supply sufficient water to support current needs and future economic development is constrained. Significant new investment in well fields and infrastructure will be required in the near future to expand supply. This is a critical factor in any future expansion of Bethel’s Clarke Business Park.
• The inability to secure permission from the City of Danbury to build a storage tank on the Eureka Lake property owned by the Town of Bethel: Bethel faces a lengthy and costly legal battle to secure permission to build a badly needed storage tank on the Eureka property.  
• The sale would allow interconnectivity to Aquarion’s growing regional network in the future to provide the water Bethel needs.
• The growing need for maintenance and repairs: In addition to the high cost of developing new well fields, Bethel’s underground water transmission system is aging and in need of improvement. The Public Utilities Commission would need to borrow several million dollars over the next five years to fund capital improvements.
• Increased revenue for the Town of Bethel: Privatizing the water department assets would create new tax revenue on the equipment and properties.
• Repay debt owed to the General Fund: As was widely reported in local press coverage in recent years, Bethel’s water department had been operating in a deficit for several years and is in debt to the General Fund by approximately $2.5 million. The sale would repay that debt, with interest.