BRYN MAWR, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Aqua America, Inc. (NYSE: WTR) today reported that with rare exception,
the half million customers who experienced the wrath of Hurricane Sandy
did so without any interruption to their water or wastewater service.
The company credited its success to the advance planning and deployment
of personnel, generators, fuel and supplies, and the extraordinary
commitment and expertise of its dedicated workforce as well as its
electric utility partners in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Virginia.
The bulk of its customers are in Pennsylvania and the majority of those
(362,000) are in southeastern part of the state. "In southeastern
Pennsylvania where we have 9 surface water treatment plants and more
than 80 wells, we had no customers out of water," said Aqua America's
President of Regulated Operations Chris Franklin. "The same was true in
our Sayre-, Shamokin- and Shenango-area operations. Overall our
management and operations teams did an outstanding job maintaining
service to our facilities during one of the worst storms in recent
history. Of our total 435,000 Pennsylvania customers, fewer than 400
were without water at any time during the storm."
"More remarkably, none of our 56,000 New Jersey customers were without
of water during the storm," said Franklin. "There were about 10 systems
that required a transition to standby electric generator power, but no
customers' service was affected. Virginia, where we serve nearly 30,000
customers, fared equally well. The impact was limited to fewer than 50
customers who might have experienced lower than normal pressure for a
very limited time. Most importantly, water quality was never compromised
by the storm, and no precautionary boil water advisories were required
or issued as a result of the storm."
Franklin added, "In addition to the physical damage left by a storm, its
impact is often measured by its impact on utility performance. Hurricane
Sandy clearly was one of the most devastating storms our area has seen.
By minimizing the impact of this powerful storm on water service to our
customers, we removed one of the largest potential inconveniences they
could have experienced during an event of this magnitude—being without
water for basic needs. We are extremely thankful to our Aqua employees
for their hard work as well as those of our electric partners."
Aqua America is one of the largest U.S.-based, publicly-traded water
utilities and serves almost 3 million residents in Pennsylvania, Ohio,
North Carolina, Illinois, Texas, New Jersey, Indiana, Florida, Virginia,
and Georgia. Aqua America is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under
the ticker symbol WTR.
WTRG
Aqua America, Inc.
Donna Alston, 610-645-1095
Director,
Communications
dpalston@aquaamerica.com
Source: Aqua America, Inc.
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