Norfolk’s Water Supply to Get New Owner

By Joe Kelly

Wangum Lake, the pristine, 177-acre reservoir that sits atop Canaan Mountain and supplies Norfolk with thousands of gallons of water every day, will come under new ownership thanks to the pending sale of Aquarion Water Company.

Eversource Energy, better known to most people in Norfolk as a supplier of electricity, bought Aquarion in 2017. After getting turned down on how much it can raise water rates and suffering significant losses in its offshore wind farm investments, Eversource announced in February that it was putting Aquarion on the auction block.

The company we know as Aquarion was established in the mid-19th century as the Bridgeport Hydraulic Co. and grew over the years by snapping up numerous, small water companies—Norfolk in 1962 and then other northwest towns including Canaan, North Canaan, Kent, Litchfield, Salisbury and Torrington. 

Rebranded as Aquarion in 1991, it is now one of the largest investor-owned water utilities in the country, providing water to 750,000 people in 72 cities and towns, mostly in Connecticut but also Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Aquarion was previously owned by the Kelda Group and Australia’s Macquarie Bank before being purchased by Eversource in 2017 for $1.675 billion.

No date has been put on the sale and Tricia Taskey Modifica, an Eversource spokesperson, declined to comment other than saying meetings with potential buyers are underway

Prospective buyers are likely to include other water utilities such as the SJW Group, the California-based owner of the Connecticut Water Company, which has more than 107,000 customers in 60 Connecticut towns. Pension and private equity firms are also expected to be among the suitors. Another possibility would be a publicly owned water authority. In June, the Connecticut legislature voted to give the New Haven-based South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority the right to make a bid for Aquarion and hearings about that potential acquisition were held in New Haven in August.

John Batten, a Norfolk resident who closely follows the industry as part of his position as Global Cities Director for Arcadis, an international design & consultancy firm, said consolidation is a major trend in water today.

“The repair and replacement of water infrastructure has become very expensive,” said Batten. He also noted that there is a lot of regulatory uncertainty around the handling of emerging contaminants such as polyfluoroalkyl substances commonly called “forever chemicals.”

This past April, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced new rules requiring public water companies to step up their monitoring of these chemicals. “With all of these pressures it’s increasingly difficult for your typical, small municipal water company to have the capital and expertise needed to maintain a water system today,” said Batten.

Norfolk’s reliance on Wangum Lake dates to 1894 when population growth and high demand during the tourist-heavy summer months made it critical for the town to secure a reliable supply of pure water. Spearheaded by Frederick M. Shepard, a businessman and major landowner who did much to shape Norfolk, the town began securing the flowage rights from Wangum Lake. The name means “bent” or “crooked” in the language of the Paugussett tribe that was once dominant in the area.

Using air-powered drills, a new technology at the time, a workforce of 140 men laid pipe for the four miles from the mountaintop to the town and then under the streets. Within two years water was flowing to homes and businesses all over Norfolk.

Today, the town consumes some 85,000 gallons from Wangum every day. About 17 percent of that goes to firefighting and water main cleaning, leaving about 70,830 per day for each of the approximately 820 hookups in town—or 86 gallons per day per hookup (some properties have multiple hookups).

Much of that water flows through pipes that likely date back to the system’s earliest days. In the last four years, Aquarion has spent more than $9.8 million updating the water infrastructure in Norfolk. Aquarion is slated to begin replacing waterlines on Shepard Road from Mills Way to Laurel Way and on Sunset Ridge next year.

“It will be interesting to see if these projects will be done next year as planned,” said Matt Riiska, Norfolk’s first selectman. He is concerned about whether the “new” Aquarion will restore the road surface, as well as potential rate hikes for town water customers. In 2023, the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) rejected Aquarion’s proposal for a rate increase and instead ordered a reduction in what it charged consumers. The Connecticut Superior Court subsequently upheld PURA’s decision. Aquarion is appealing.