Rates, and tempers, rise at water hearing

The one member of the state Public Service Commission who attended a hearing on a proposed water rate hike last week got an earful from unhappy customers of Long Island American Water.

James Larocca, one of five PSC commissioners who regulate the state’s utilities, listened for several hours on Dec. 13 as people lashed out at the private water company and its proposed 7.3 percent increase, which, if approved, would be implemented over a three-year period. To increase LIAW’s annual net revenues by $1.4 million, rates for residential customers would increase by 2.5 percent in 2012, 2.6 percent in 2013 and 2.2 percent in 2014. There would also be a 6 percent increase in the cost of fire hydrant rentals.

Incensed that the PSC, in a press release about the proposal, called the increases small, County Legislator Dave Denenberg (D-Merrick) gave impassioned testimony opposing the increase and criticizing the commission.

“I don’t know how an 8 percent rate increase is small in a time where … real income in Nassau County has gone down,” Denenberg said. “People can’t afford any increase, much less one that I would call a very significant increase. … No increase is justified because the people being charged don’t have the ability to pay.”

According to a press release from LIAW, the proposed rate hike is necessary “to invest in essential infrastructure improvements, while keeping pace with rising property taxes and increasing operational costs.” Over the past four years, LIAW has spent some $54 million on infrastructure improvements — including the $7.5 million iron filtration plant it opened last year on the Malverne-Lynbrook border. The company has also laid 16 miles of new water mains, and is in the early design phase of constructing a new iron-removal plant in Lynbrook. It says there are a number of other capital projects in the works as well.

The company is also in the process of acquiring Aqua Utilities Inc., a private water company that serves Bellmore, Merrick and several other communities, and Denenberg expressed concern that it would use profits from the rate hike to bolster the acquisition.