Officials involved in the 2024 sale of Butler Area Sewer Authority to Pennsylvania American Water cited aging infrastructure and a lack of funds to fix issues as one reason the sale would benefit the 15,000 customer connections in Butler County.

Pennsylvania American Water announced Thursday, March 13, a $1.6 million dollar project to replace more than 1.2 miles of water mains in Butler, with work set to begin as soon as Monday, March 17.

As part of the $230 million sale agreement, the water company can recoup only $228 million through customer rates. Additionally, new rates wouldn’t take effect for new Pennsylvania American customers in Butler County until one year from the closing of the sale, which would be Oct. 29 of this year.

Seeing that the private water company is putting money into what was once a public entity knowing it cannot immediately recoup those funds with a rate hike is a good sign, but we should always pay attention to projects and their costs to the consumer. Yes, it is costly to invest in fixing infrastructure that has been in use for decades, but Pennsylvania American Water is a for-profit company.

The project aims to address aging infrastructure along Brown Avenue and to prevent future water main breaks along Delwood and Whitestown roads, which have seen numerous breaks, said Brent Robinson, manager of external affairs for the company. As we all know, water main breaks are inconvenient and even potentially hazardous to the people affected by them, so this infrastructure project could end up saving money in the long run.

Just be on the lookout come October for changes to your billing. It wouldn’t be a shock to see the rates increase once the company is allowed to bump prices, and these infrastructure projects could likely be the justification for those increases, however needed they are.

Pennsylvania American Water services Butler; parts of East Butler; and portions of Butler, Center, Connoquenessing, Summit and Oakland townships.

— ET