Turzai issues statement on Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority

Speaker of the House Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny) released a statement regarding issues surrounding Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA).

“The PWSA, in its current form, has been grossly mismanaged for decades, so much so that we needed to place it under the control of the Public Utility Commission (PUC) to provide more oversight, ensure fiscal responsibility and demand best practices,” Turzai said. “Now, over six months later, we still do not have a picture of how bad the PWSA’s problems are.”

A report issued in August by Infrastructure Management Group called the PWSA “a failed organization atop a dangerous and crumbling structure” and described a dysfunctional culture at the authority.

According to the report, approximately 20 percent of PWSA’s 250 employees are out of work on short-term disability, and PWSA cannot bill for roughly 50 percent of clean water its system produces because of leaky pipes and unbilled accounts.

Under a 1995 agreement with the city of Pittsburgh, PWSA provides 600 million gallons of free water to the city per year but does not track how much water the city uses because many city-owned properties are not metered.

“There should be no agreement for free water for the city government to use while citizens and businesses in the city have had to pay increased rates,” Turzai said. “The people deserve to know who is getting the water for free and need to know now. Mayor Bill Peduto and city council must provide these answers.”

Turzai called for the immediate metering of all Pittsburgh city buildings and the nullification of PWSA’s 1995 agreement with the city.

“There is a reason why you never read about a private company doing these types of things; it’s because they would never be allowed to get away with operating way the PWSA has,” Turzai said.

Act 65 of 2017, which became effective on April 1, 2018, placed the PWSA under PUC oversight and directed the PWSA board of directors to bring the system into compliance with the requirements of Title 66 of the PA Statutes and PUC regulations applicable to investor-owned water and wastewater utilities.

On March 15, 2018, the PUC approved the Final Implementation Order, which details ratemaking, tariff approval, compliance plans, infrastructure improvements, consumer protections and other issues related to the implementation of Act 65.