Saturday, February 22, 2025, 5:33PM |  31°
MENU
Advertisement
.
1
MORE

Brian O'Neill: State oversight of PWSA? Muddy waters

Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Brian O'Neill: State oversight of PWSA? Muddy waters

The only certainty about the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority is that it cannot survive in its current form. That’s a lead-pipe cinch.

It’s been a poorly managed nest of patronage jobs that the city helped suck dry. The city’s entitled to 600 million gallons of free water each year, but the authority never got around to properly metering the outflow in the 22 years since that deal was made.

Ponder that a second. In more than two decades, nobody thought it worthwhile to track the output to the principal customer

Advertisement

The city might be paying the authority another $3.5 million — about 3 percent of its operating budget — once it gets the proper tallies on its spickets. A quick fix there would be good news for the water users in neighboring communities such as Aspinwall, Millvale, Sharpsburg, Hampton, Shaler and Reserve, though city taxpayers and water drinkers will continue coughing up those millions one way or another.

All any PWSA customers want, in or out of the city, is “clean water and a bill they can afford to pay,” as state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale succinctly put it in his recent scathing audit. But years of mismanagement have left the authority reeling.

State legislation to put the PWSA under the oversight of the state Public Utility Commission awaits only Gov. Tom Wolf’s signature, and he’s expected to sign it. The PUC would then oversee the billing rates, and Mayor Bill Peduto said Monday he’s OK with that.

He’s not OK with state Rep. Dom Costa, D-Stanton Heights, suggesting another layer of oversight beyond the PUC, however. Mr. Costa has said he intends to introduce a bill that would create a state receivership that would oversee the authority in roughly the same way that Act 47 coordinators have looked over the city’s finances since 2004.

Advertisement

Mr. Peduto and those overseers agree the city should be allowed to exit that distressed status, what with the city workforce shrunk by 26 percent and the pension fund back on solid ground. The mayor doesn’t think anything beyond PUC oversight is needed for our water though.

Why is this different? Because the mayor fears that full state control would lead to privatization of this city asset, and he’s right to worry. As poorly run as the PWSA has been, it could easily get worse in the hands of people whose chief concern is the bottom line. Veolia Water, a company hired to manage the PWSA from July 2012 through December 2015, did such a poor job that Mr. DePasquale saw its profit motive getting in the way of its obligations to customers. 

Councilwoman Deborah Gross also noted that Flint, Mich., was under state supervision when it started cutting costs by drawing water from the tainted Flint River. The water that flowed from taps thereafter eventually led to involuntary manslaughter charges against state and local officials

This is what can happen when you put your water under the control of people who aren’t drinking it. Given that the legislative leaders in this state, generally speaking, don’t much like cities or even understand why anyone would want to live in one, city residents should be wary of giving them control of their water. It’s easy to see state appointees paying more attention to the bottom line than the end product.

Unlike some other difficulties that Pennsylvania cities have — such as an inability to wrest payments in lieu of taxes from the resident hospitals and universities — there is no way to blame the state for the sorry state of the PWSA. It’s entirely the fault of Pittsburgh. If the city doesn’t right its course, Mr. Peduto will have to answer for that in the next Democratic primary.

I wish I could say he’ll also have to answer in the general election, but the standard Pennsylvania Republican three-pronged message to cities — you’re all idiots; I’d never live there; why don’t you let us run it? — still needs work.

The General Assembly, generally preoccupied with not passing a budget on time, has no political reason to look out for Pennsylvania cities’ interests and should not be trusted to do so. We Pittsburghers may be in treacherous waters, but we’ll need to sink or swim on our own.

Brian O’Neill: boneill@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1947 or Twitter @brotheroneill 

First Published: November 23, 2017, 5:15 a.m.

RELATED
SHOW COMMENTS  
Join the Conversation
Commenting policy | How to Report Abuse
If you would like your comment to be considered for a published letter to the editor, please send it to letters@post-gazette.com. Letters must be under 250 words and may be edited for length and clarity.
Partners
Advertisement
The University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning
1
business
Amid funding uncertainty, Pitt pauses doctoral admissions
A new report advises retirees in 2025 to aim for just 3.7% when withdrawing from savings -- down from 4%. Over a 30-year retirement, that could mean the difference between financial security or outliving your cash in your 80s or 90s, financial experts say.
2
business
How much can retirees safely withdraw from their nest eggs? Financial experts weigh in.
Steelers receiver Calvin Austin III, left, celebrates with teammate George Pickens after scoring a 23-yard touchdown against the Cleveland Browns during the fourth quarter in the game at Huntington Bank Field on November 21, 2024.
3
sports
Steelers position analysis: Is there a path forward at wide receiver with George Pickens?
The Linden Street Tunnel in Duquesne on the Steel Valley Trail is a segment of the Great American Passage (GAP). The trail group wants to paint a mural on the graffiti-plagued tunnel.
4
local
Military 'Ghost Bomber' that landed in the Mon River in 1956 might be depicted in proposed mural
Preston Coleman, 52, was beaten and strangled inside an Aliquippa VFW on Jan. 5, 2025, in what police described as a vicious, unprovoked attack.
5
news
Bartender working at Aliquippa VFW during beating that left man unconscious facing charges
.  (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Advertisement
LATEST opinion
Advertisement
TOP
Email a Story