TECHNICAL QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE
ACQUISITION EXPERIENCE
New Jersey American Water is experienced in undertaking and completing municipal wastewater system acquisitions, and successfully incorporating the customers and assets into our operations.
In the last eight years, New Jersey American Water has successfully closed seven transactions totaling more than $105 million in water and wastewater system acquisitions, transitioning more than 33,900 new customers into our service areas. In addition, we are in the process of acquiring the wastewater system assets of Bound Brook in Somerset County and the water and wastewater system assets of Egg Harbor City in Atlantic County. Please see below and Appendix B for more information on New Jersey American Water’s acquisition experience.
BOROUGH OF BOUND BROOK, SOMERSET COUNTY
In February 2022, New Jersey American Water signed an agreement to acquire the wastewater collection system of the Borough of Bound Brook for $5 million. This municipally owned system serves approximately 2,900 customers, most of whom already receive water service from New Jersey American Water. The agreement follows a voter referendum that took place in November 2021, in which nearly two-thirds of Bound Brook voters approved the sale of the system to New Jersey American Water.
The acquisition provides the Borough of Bound Brook with property tax relief via the $5 million purchase price, stabilized rates via a two-year rate hold and commitment to no more than 3 percent annual increases for the following three years, and needed infrastructure investment. New Jersey American Water is committed to investing $11 million in the first 10 years alone into needed improvements to the Borough’s century-old wastewater system.
New Jersey American Water anticipates completing the acquisition in the second half of 2022, following approval from the NJBPU.
LONG HILL TOWNSHIP, MORRIS COUNTY
After more than a century of providing water service to the Long Hill community, in 2017, local officials supported a plan to transfer ownership and operation of the Township's wastewater collection system and 1.25 million gallon per day wastewater treatment plant to New Jersey American Water. In a November 2017 referendum on the sale, voters rejected the measure by a slim margin after an activist group engaged in scare tactics about the loss of local control and offered unidentified “alternatives” for the Borough to retain ownership and properly manage the system.
Shortly after voters chose not to approve the sale, the Township’s elected leaders were forced into dramatic rate increases to improve the aging system. Rates increased 20 percent in 2018 and 16 percent in 2019, with additional significant increases planned for the next two years. Residents in Long Hill were soon clamoring for