{"id":264533,"date":"2026-08-13T11:12:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T11:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/264533\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T11:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T11:12:15","slug":"pennsylvania-utility-company-cuts-proposed-water-rate-hike-by-more-than-half-after-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/264533\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania utility company cuts proposed water rate hike by more than half after vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHP) \u2014 The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission<\/a> (PUC) voted Thursday in favor of a significant reduction to Pennsylvania American Water Company’s (PAWC) proposed water and wastewater rate increases.<\/p>\n

The commission approved a 4-1 vote to modify the company’s proposed rates and to adjust its recommended return on common equity, according to a news release.<\/p>\n

Under the commission’s order, PAWC will receive an overall revenue increase of $74.9 million, including a 4.75% increase<\/a> in its water operations and a 14.2% increase in its wastewater operations.<\/p>\n

The rates, which will take effect Thursday, are substantially lower than what the utility company originally had in mind. <\/p>\n

Originally, PAWC proposed a 15% increase in annual water revenue, worth around $143.4 million, while also seeking a 7.7% wastewater revenue increase, totaling roughly $16.1 million.<\/p>\n

PUC Commissioner Kathryn Zerfuss acknowledged that, while the law permits a public utility company to recover costs for improving its infrastructure, the increase is more than she can support due to “affordability pressures facing ratepayers.”<\/p>\n

The vice chair of PUC, Kimberly Barrow, referred to the proposed water rate hike as “no longer balanced between utility financial health and what consumers pay.”<\/p>\n

CBS 21 previously spoke with several York County customers about the upcoming rate increase amid a $4 million wastewater facelift, and reactions were mixed.<\/p>\n

RELATED | Water rates going up as York wastewater system gets $4M upgrade<\/a><\/p>\n

“I mean, water is going up, electric, all the utilities, it’s just overwhelming,” Milton Baltimore said. “Everything’s going up but the paycheck.”<\/p>\n

A retired Pennsylvanian told CBS 21 he has to live off a fixed income and found himself questioning whether the rate increases and investment outweigh the higher bills.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, others said the increase was relatively reasonable compared to inflated costs everywhere else.<\/p>\n

“I only pay about $50 a month for water,” Chris Orchard said. “At 5%, that obviously would only mean another $2.50.”<\/p>\n

The company, which is responsible for servicing more than 800,000 customers across 38 counties, last filed for a base rate increase in 2023.<\/p>\n

According to the news release, the commission’s order also includes measures to enhance customer service and provide additional protections to PAWC customers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHP) \u2014 The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) voted Thursday in favor of a significant reduction…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-264533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}