WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Aqua America, Inc. (NYSE: WTR) Chairman and CEO Nicholas DeBenedictis
said today that "The national standards of enforcement and initial
financial support provided to municipal wastewater facilities in the
1972 Clean Water Act ultimately led to major investments by private
industry and the ultimate success of the regulatory process from which
we all benefit today through cleaner national waterways."
His remarks were made today at the National Association of Regulatory
Utility Commission's Winter Committee meeting in Washington, DC. "Before
the Clean Water Act, only about a third of U.S. waterways supported fish
habitat and could be used for human recreation, and we were losing up to
500,000 acres of wetlands — the oceans' ‘natural filters'— annually,"
said DeBenedictis. "Perhaps even more disturbing was the fact that 20
percent of drinking water samples exceeded the federal limits for
certain contaminants."
Citing an extraordinary example of water pollution prior to the Clean
Water Act, DeBenedictis referenced a fire on Ohio's Cuyahogo River that
was started when a spark from a train ignited an oil slick on the river.
"Since the Clean Water Act was enacted 40 years ago, hundreds of
billions of dollars have been invested in pollution control equipment
and now you can swim and fish in most of the nation's waterways; average
wetland losses have fallen to fewer than 60,000 acres annually, and
almost every U.S. citizen is provided drinking water that meets all
health-based standards," said DeBenedictis. "When you consider private
industry has made much of the investment that has led to these
improvements, it begs the question of whether tax-supported grant
programs are still needed. The success of the Clean Water Act could be
an example that we can afford the true cost of service for our goods and
services and do not require taxes to support government entities to do
for us what the private sector can economically accomplish."
DeBenedictis said Aqua America's utility companies are a prime example
of his assertion. "For the past several years, our utility companies
have collectively invested more than $300 million annually to upgrade
water and wastewater infrastructure in the nine states in which they
operate," said DeBenedictis. "Our customers pay for those improvements
with their rates, which are still less than other utility services
despite the fact that water and wastewater remain the most
capital-intensive of all utilities, investing more capital for every
dollar of revenue earned than any other utility."
Aqua America is one of the largest U.S.-based, publicly-traded water
utilities and serves almost 3 million residents in Pennsylvania,
Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio,
Texas and Virginia. Aqua America is listed on the New York Stock
Exchange under the ticker symbol WTR. Visit www.aquaamerica.com
for more information.
WTRG
Aqua America, Inc.
Donna Alston
Manager, Communications
610-645-1095
484-368-4720
dpalston@aquaamerica.com
Source: Aqua America, Inc.
News Provided by Acquire Media
