Aqua Pennsylvania has swallowed up DELCORA - but it's apparently still thirsty.
Could Chester Water Authority be next.
On today's editorial page, we run down the deal that saw the public utility giant drop a cool $276 million to buy the agency that handles the county's wastewater.
That's a lot of money down the drain, in a manner of speaking.
The Delaware County Water Quality Control Authority - DELCORA as everyone refers to it - was staring at a mountain of mandated updates to its system. The tab to be in compliance with new Environmental Protection Agency rules was in the neighborhood of $1.2 billion. So they went looking for a sugar daddy with deep pockets.
Enter Aqua Pa., which was only too happy to suck in the Delco agency - and its 169,000 customers.
Then there's Chester Water Authority.
Their board has a meeting scheduled this afternoon, as the legal machinations continue to swirl over an unsuccessful effort by Aqua to acquire the company, and a convoluted series of legal filings stemming from Aqua objecting to a deal cut between Chester Water and Chester city that would have preserved the iconic local company, dropped a cool $60 million into the city's coffers, and resulted in a 10 percent rate hike for CWA customers.
We'll be at the meeting to let you know what happens.
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