Great Barrington — In line with previous years, 2024 was a challenging one for Housatonic Water Works customers.
HWW customers continued to deal with water quality issues throughout the year, and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) fined the company $10,205 in November for withholding poor manganese test results.
In July, the Department of Public Utilities approved a rate increase allowing to HWW to raise its customer rates by over 90 percent over five years. Representatives of the company have said that the increases are needed to pay for a list of capital projects, including a manganese filter system, an interconnection with the Great Barrington Fire District, a new water storage tank, and a water main replacement.
In August, the Great Barrington Board of Health issued an Order to Correct against the company. However, Berkshire Superior Court Associate Justice John Agostini barred the board from enforcing the order in late October.
Also in late October, consultants from DPC Engineering LLC of Longmeadow and Harwich Port, Mass., issued a town-commissioned study on the value of HWW’s infrastructure. The report states that HWW has a negative net value of $31.3 million.
At a virtual meeting in mid-October, HWW Treasurer James Mercer said that critics of the water company “Drank the Kool-Aid.”
Meanwhile, the company’s annual report for 2023, issued in July, revealed that both Treasurer Mercer and company President Frederick Mercer each received a raise in their salaries.
After everything that has happened this year, in December alone, resident Sharon Gregory has started two separate petitions to call for a special town meeting so that residents could vote on the town purchasing both HWW and the Great Barrington Fire District.
Gregory is a former chair of the town’s Finance Committee and has made suggestions in the past that HWW and the Great Barrington Fire District should be merged together. Back in November 2022, however, members of the Fire District Prudential Committee told the Selectboard that they had no interest in operating HWW.
Despite this, according to Gregory, the intention of the petitions is for the town to acquire both water systems in order to merge them into one water district.
The first petition asks for the town to acquire the Great Barrington Fire District for an amount not to exceed $2 million, while the second asks for the town to acquire HWW for an amount not to exceed $2.3 million.
In an interview with The Berkshire Edge, Gregory said that despite what members of the Fire District Prudential Committee said in 2022, and in light of the town looking to negotiate with HWW for its purchase, the town should move forward with purchasing both companies and merge them together. “After what members of the committee said in 2022, I had to think about whether or not they could just say, ‘We’re not interested, end of story,’” Gregory said. “I started to look at state statutes and researched other towns’ water companies that were acquired. I realized that there are state statutes that have provisions for the towns to reacquire their water rights.”
Gregory cited the town of Hingham for acquiring its water system. Back on July 31, 2020, after a process that took nearly eight years, Hingham purchased its water system from Aquarion Water Co.
According to Gregory, there are two states statues, including State Statute 1886 Chapter 311 and State Statute 1897 Chapter 229, that allow for the town to acquire both water operations. Through these statutes, a two-thirds majority vote at a special town meeting would be needed to approve the town purchasing both water systems.
“To me, having a consolidated water company makes sense,” Gregory said. “The thought that the Fire District can’t manage HWW is not believable by me.” She said that both companies, when merged, would be able to consolidate their facilities, management, and employees, saving customers money.
Gregory said that once she gets enough signatures, she plans to submit the petitions in early January, and as per town statutes, the Selectboard would have to call a special town meeting within 45 days.
“What I would like is to tackle this before the annual town meeting in May,” Gregory said. “We can’t pretend like, ‘Oh well, let’s study this for another three or six months.’”
Gregory, who is a customer of the Great Barrington Fire District, said that both petitions need 105 signatures of registered voters to be submitted. “Why am I doing this for HWW customers? Because I’m very bothered by the injustice its customers have dealt with over the years,” Gregory said. “They’ve been dealing with this for far too long.”
