Representatives of West Virginia-American Water defended a proposed rate hike during an evidentiary hearing before the Public Service Commission.
“It’s a very common occurrence when we make infrastructure investments and capital improvements, that those then are the main, key drivers for base rate cases,” said Robert Burton, president of West Virginia-American Water, in testimony.
West Virginia-American Water is asking for an increase of just over $41 million — about 22.5 percent across the board to customers.
An evidentiary hearing before the Public Service Commission lasted all day Tuesday and will pick up again at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The water company contends the rate increase reflects the cost of investments in water and wastewater upgrades that have been made since 2020 — plus upgrades projected through February 2025. Those investments total about $340 million.
“The company does have an obligation to provide safe, reliable water and wastewater services, and the company would meet those commitments to continue to provide safe, reliable water and wastewater services, including investment in those systems,” Burton said.
“The difficulty is acquiring more proactive investments beyond the minimum amounts required, both into our aging infrastructure, into meeting new regulations, into meeting what are needs across the state and priorities of the commission to provide assistance to troubled systems, to failing systems, to fund extension of water services and/or wastewater services to customers who do not have those currently.”
He continued, “Those are all things that are above and beyond what it takes to meet safe, reliable water and wastewater services, which, absolutely, the company is committed to that.”
Proposed monthly bill increases for the average residential customer using 3,000 a month are estimated to be $18.95. For the average commercial customer using 16,000 gallons per month, the bump would be $101.08. And the increase would be $2,476.85 for the average industrial customer using 650,000 gallons a month.
The evidentiary hearing was preceded by months of filings by parties to the rate case. The commission also accepted letters and public comment from citizens.
The Kanawha County Commission is officially a party to the case, pushing back on the rate hike. Commission President Kent Carper testified Tuesday morning, saying “our concern is the affordability of water rates at this point in time. People can’t afford the utility rates going up every other year or every year.”
Carper acknowledged the water company faces significant challenges. “But our objection is these continuous, systemic, back to back to back to back to back rate increases and surcharges and other charges. They certainly add up.
“We’re asking the Public Service Commission to send a strong message and deny this rate increase,” Carper said. “It’s just not right that the water company gets a rate increase every time they ask for it. And they get one every time they ask for it. Not what they asked for because they don’t expect to get that. But they get one every time they ask for it. Perhaps today’s the day that they should not, and send them a message.”
The hearing began with comment by Betty Jarvis, a Kanawha County resident and activist. “I don’t feel that the Public Service Commission takes care of us at all. I think we get gouged,” she said.
The rate increase request has drawn extra scrutiny over the past few weeks after a water line broke resulting in pressure that pierced a gas distribution line, knocking out gas service for hundreds of residents of Charleston’s West Side.
That issue wasn’t at the center of Tuesday’s testimony, but it did come up sometimes.
“Do you have anything that you would like to say about the recent issue that happened on the West Side,” Commission President Charlotte Lane asked Burton, the water company president.
There’s already a separate PSC inquiry into that situation plus litigation, so Burton responded that he wouldn’t speculate about factors in the situation.
But he said, “Our main in question that did have a break on it was essentially a little over 30-year old main, a ductile iron pipe, that we have no previous break history on. I cannot speak or speculate to what occurred on the gas company’s system or why they had a break or what happened there and don’t want to do that here today.”