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(The Center Square) – A new study of typical household water bills generated by 500 water systems around the nation found that four of the top 10 most expensive water companies are in Pennsylvania.
American Water-Pittsburgh, American Water-Lake Scranton, and American Water-West are all in Pennsylvania and all associated with the New York Stock Exchange-traded entity American Water Works. Each generated a typical 2025 annual household water bill of $1,355. Another system in the state, Aqua Pennsylvania, generated a typical annual bill of $1,351.
By comparison, 475 of the 500 systems nationwide had annual bills under $1,000. More than 400 of them were less than $700.
"The consequences of water privatization are clear: corporate control is driving people's water bills through the roof at a time when everything is getting more expensive,” said Mary Grant, water policy director for Food & Water Watch.
Grant said lawmakers in the state must “do everything they can to protect every person's access to safe and affordable water.” That, she said, should include repeal a 2016 law that changed the way values for municipal water and sewer systems are determined when sold to for-profit companies.
In the Capitol Tuesday, Democratic Rep. Danilo Burgos of Philadelphia said the study proved the need for passage of his bill that would put a one-year moratorium on the privatization of public water and sewer systems.
“I believe a moratorium would help with that – Pennsylvania being in a ‘top 10’ for the wrong reasons,” Burgos said. “We would have time to adapt and figure out what does work and doesn’t work.”
Republican Rep. Mark Gillen of Berks County has encountered people in his district whose water bills are so high they are sticking to two showers a week or limiting toilet flushes. The local system in Exeter Township was bought by Pennsylvania American Water in 2019.
“Average income constituents are literally being forced out of their homes with bill of hundreds of dollars per month,” Gillen said. “Corporate greed and atrocious executive pay are sadly causing my constituents to literally shower less, and flush toilets fewer times.”
American Water Works, the parent of Pennsylvania American Water and three of the systems in the cost study’s top ten, had $5,140,000,000 in operating revenue in 2025, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Another SEC filing showed American Water President and CEO John C. Griffith’s compensation package for 2025 was valued at $7,055,667. Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Cheryl Norton had a package valued at $6,342,406.
A spokesperson for Pennsylvania American Water, Gary Lobaugh, said making broad comparisons of water rates across utilities without accounting for many “critical differences” presents an incomplete and misleading picture.
“American Water's rates reflect the cost of providing safe, clean, reliable and affordable water and wastewater service” and support various improvements, he said. State public utility commissions give rigorous scrutiny to proposed rate proposals before approving them, Lobaugh said.
Separately, the National Association of Water Companies warned against taking too much from what it called the “activist organization’s release of their own rate comparison.”
In a statement, the association said its concerns about such analyses are shared by academics, experts, and the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
“Comparing rates for the largest one percent of U.S. water systems and extrapolating them for the entire sector without context paints an incomplete and misleading picture of America's water landscape,” the statement said.