State agency to probe hikes in water rates

Posted

Kelley Marrero used to pay New York American Water about $60 a month, but in July she received a bill for $109, according to her posts on the Valley Stream News Facebook page.
Nancy Germano-Mazza also wrote that her water bills increased from $60 to $80 a month to $469 in July. “My water consumption increases a bit in the summer, but never like this,” she wrote.
After receiving many similar calls from residents from Baldwin to Valley Stream, the New York State Public Service Commission announced that it will investigate the rise in NYAW rates. PSC spokesman James Denn confirmed the probe in an email.
Valley Stream is in NYAW’s Lynbrook service area.
NYAW President Carmen Tierno said in an emailed statement that the utility “takes every customer contact seriously. The accuracy of our meters is critical to our service commitment. Our customer service team has already been working with several customers regarding questions about their water bills.”

The company is “conducting a detailed review using advanced analytics and meter testing to confirm their accuracy,” added Tierno, who was to share the methodology used during the review with the PSC after press time on Tuesday. “The results of our analysis and testing will be shared transparently with our customers and stakeholders. New York American Water is fully committed to our customers and the accuracy of its billing.”
State Sen. Todd Kaminsky, a Democrat from Long Beach, and Hempstead Town Supervisor Laura Gillen wrote a joint letter to the PSC on July 27, asking it to investigate NYAW following “widespread complaints by American Water customers living in the Town of Hempstead who have experienced a sharp, inexplicable increase in their monthly water bills.”
The two wrote that many residents were told “that they must have a leak or other faulty mechanisms,” but in almost every case no leak or other problem could be identified. “When pressed for an explanation, American Water told our offices that these customers must be increasing their water usage.” But their constituents maintained that their water use has remained flat or increased far less than the rate hikes would indicate.
Kaminsky shared the letter on his Facebook page, leading hundreds of people to share their frustrations with the utility.
“My bill doubled this month,” Rose Panzarella commented. “I am still one person and living at same address for 13 years. Plus I no longer have the portable Jacuzzi I had last year.”
“Our bill has doubled, and we stopped running our sprinklers, and it still didn’t budge,” Erin English said.
Kaminsky called the increases “dramatic and questionable. Long Islanders pay a great deal for their water, and can only get it from one source. It’s critical that billing be fair and justifiable.”
Additionally, ratepayers are seeing an increase in their bills because of the company’s ongoing infrastructure projects. At a July 26 public hearing on NYAW’s plans to erect a metal building to protect tanks during the winter and to add trees in front of its iron-removal plant in Valley Stream, John Kilpatrick, NYAW’s engineering manager, said that “a small
percentage of the water bill [increase]
is due to all the infrastructure
we’re doing.”
“The cost of the infrastructure gets shared by everyone in our service district,” he added.
This isn’t NYAW’s first run-in with the PSC this year. The agency announced on July 12 that it had found that the company intentionally deceived the state by withholding information from the commission that caused water rates to be set “artificially high.” The agency ordered a special court proceeding against NYAW in response to the findings, and is looking into hiring an independent monitor, as well as requiring the utility’s shareholders to pay the costs of the company’s “failures.”
That same day, State Assemblywoman Christine Pellegrino, a Democrat from West Islip, announced her intention to introduce two bills in the Legislature that could push NYAW out of the county. The first would direct State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office to fund a feasibility study to determine the most efficient, cost-effective and comprehensive means for a public entity to supply water to all 46 Nassau County communities under NYAW’s purview.
The second bill would amend a portion of state property tax law that exempts private water companies regulated by the PSC, and that operate within cities of more than a million people, from paying property taxes. The statute does not apply to counties.