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Buoying PWSA: Oversight and new board promise needed change

Antonella Crescimbeni/Post-Gazette

Buoying PWSA: Oversight and new board promise needed change

Two new developments offer hope that the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority is on its way to a turnaround. The state Public Utility Commission is moving to adopt oversight of the PWSA, and Mayor Bill Peduto has signed an executive order that should help insulate the agency from Grant Street politics.

In December, Gov. Tom Wolf signed legislation giving the PUC oversight of the authority, which has suffered a crisis of confidence due to repeated service disruptions, decaying infrastructure, elevated levels of lead in the water, poor customer service, chronic billing errors, high debt and a string of rate increases. Following through on its new responsibility, the PUC last week adopted a tentative plan that spells out a consumer complaint process and gives the PWSA timetables for submitting capital improvement plans and future rate proposals. 

Oversight officially begins April 1, and consumers have until 4:30 p.m. Feb. 7 to comment on the tentative plan. The authority’s interim executive director, Robert Weimar, has promised “continued engagement” with the state. That’s good to hear, but public pressure being as strong as it is, the authority really has no choice. 

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The tentative plan requires the agency to provide information about how it selects and evaluates contractors, how materials are procured and how the PWSA intends to dispose of scrap from construction projects. These are precisely the kinds of details the PUC should ride herd on as the PWSA embarks on a spate of capital improvements, including the replacement of lead-tainted lines. The authority also should make the necessary, if costly, upgrades that are needed to keep sewage from spilling into the rivers and backing up in basements during heavy rains.

As conditions at PWSA deteriorated last year, Mr. Peduto formed a blue-ribbon panel to study the agency’s future. Consumers insisted that water and sewer service remain in public hands despite the authority’s systemic failures. In the end, the panel recommended that the PWSA remain a public entity while being insulated from Grant Street politics that in past years led to patronage and questionable financial decisions. 

Mr. Peduto accepted those recommendations, signing an executive order Monday that will end the practice of requiring certain city-paid officials to sit on the board and having the mayor and city council fill other seats with people of their choosing. The executive order sets up a board of nominators to fill PWSA board slots from now on. The order also authorizes the blue-ribbon panel to hire an attorney and work with PWSA on other aspects of restructuring.

The advent of PUC oversight and Mr. Peduto’s order represent concrete steps toward a long-needed stabilizing of one of the city’s most important agencies. A city that hopes to attract the likes of Amazon must be able to provide safe, reliable water service and dispose of wastewater without fouling rivers and basements. 

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First Published: January 23, 2018, 5:00 a.m.

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