A message to Aboite residents from Senator David Long
Posted by AWB in Current Affairs, Fort WayneI’m opposing Aqua Indiana’s rate hike.
You can too!
Aqua Indiana, the private utility providing sewer and water services to Aboite Township residents, recently filed a rate increase request with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC). I oppose this request and wish to explain my reasons.
Approximately eighteen months ago, the IURC granted an unprecedented 75% sewer and water rate increase to Aqua Indiana. This was a reduction from Aqua’s original request for a 100% increase, but it was still far in excess of any rate increase ever experienced by Aqua’s customers and may well have been one of the largest percentage rate increases ever granted to an Indiana utility.
In fairness, Aqua purchased a poorly run utility with significantly greater problems than it realized and the company had invested heavily to fix many glitches that had long troubled and frustrated its Aboite customers. However, the generous rate increases granted by the IURC should have made Aqua whole and then some.
Aqua now seeks an additional 16.64% increase for water service, together with an 18.48% increase for sewer. Customers are outraged and understandably so.
Aqua attempts to justify this latest demand by claiming it has recently modernized its water treatment facility. I, too, am a customer of the utility and I can attest from personal experience that the results of this alleged modernization are minimal at best. Aqua is also asking its customers to foot the bill for a multi-million dollar payout it made in settling a long-standing lawsuit with an Aboite neighborhood.
In my opinion, Aqua’s customers should not have to pay for the utility’s legal errors nor should the minimal improvements made to their water quality be treated as anything other than a routine expenditure that can and should be paid back over time with the returns enjoyed from the prior rate increase.
Lastly, this rate request comes at a terrible moment in time for Aqua customers. The tough economy is making it difficult for many families to keep their financial ships afloat. To be asked to pay even more money for sewer and water services, especially so soon after the massive recent increases, is inexcusable.
I encourage all customers of Aqua Indiana to join me in opposing this utility’s excessive and inappropriate demand to increase its rates once again. You can do so by writing to the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor (OUCC) before Aug. 24, and letting them know how you feel. Their address is OUCC, 115 W. Washington St., Suite 1500 South, Indianapolis, IN 46204. They can also be contacted via email at uccinfo@oucc.in.gov.
Senator David Long
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Where was my state reps when my utility had a rate increase????
I do not think it is appropriate for him to be speaking out in his official capacity on a subject that affects him personally.
Bullshit, Pat. You don't check your citizenship at the door when you become a representative.
Is that kind of like when he wasn't a city councilmen anymore and fought annexation of Abboit,where he lived.Have to call this one grandstanding.
Do the math, they're asking for hiking the sum of the previous 75% increase by 16.64%. If the IURC approves the increase AquaSource will receive more than the original 100% rate increase they had asked for.
Glad I don't live in Aboite Twp., otherwise I'd be spending a lot of time trying to figure out how I could clandestinely drill a well and lay out a leach bed on my property!
Rip,
I suppose I should be thankful and quit my bitching about being in the city limits for over 4 years and still have a well and septic.
It is nice that Dave gets involved when his pocket book is involved. I wish he paid as much attention to what affects the lives of others. But, perhaps he has met with the INPIRG people and they have converted him to militant consumer-protectionism. From indifference to activism in only two rate hikes. Now, show him a NIPSCO bill.
That seems to be what it takes…
Senator