Hurley Considers Buying Out Hudson Valley Water Co. - by Steve Ellman/Kingston Wire

Years of citizen complaints about water quality in the Town of Hurley, and a war of words between local electeds and the town's water provider, Hudson Valley Water Companies, Inc., may ultimately be resolved by — dare we say it? — a touch of socialism.

Wrangling over the company's record reached a recent peak earlier this month when a coalition of Ulster officials lead by County Executive Jen Metzger fired off a letter to the state Public Service Commission asking it to revoke and reassign HVWC's franchise to supply water in Ulster County.

Company owner Jeffrey Fuller responded with a Jan. 11 letter to the PSC. On one hand, he defended his record and on the other, stated “... in the past several years, we have contacted the town executives and county executive as to the possibility of their establishing local water districts in these areas and have met with no interest. We would still be open to discussing this possibility as well as having mutual and fair discussions with any of the larger water providers in the state.”

Metzger replied with a Jan. 25 letter to the PSC in which she defended the accuracy of the electeds' and citizen complaints, praised the PSC for “a positive response from the [Department of Public Service] signaling that they are actively considering our request,” and wrote she was “pleased to see Mr. Fuller acknowledge in his response that he is open to a facilitated transfer of the water system to a qualified entity.”

Unless PSC staff are lying out their butts, the company's record is hard to defend, based on its October 2020 report and its 49 recommended fixes to water quality, customer service and other matters. PSC dockets show the company in compliance with some of the procedural recommendations. 

Even prior to the Metzger letter, Hurley Town Board members Tuesday unanimously approved a proposal that, rather than wait on endless bureaucratic back-and-forth with the company, authorizes Town Supervisor Mike Boms to approach HVWC owner Fuller about a municipal buy-out of West Hurley Water Systems #3 and #4. 

Fuller, who had not previously heard of the town's buyout interest, is not averse to the idea but he's not up for a fire sale. “I don't know anything,” he told Kingston Wire. “I haven't heard or been contacted by anyone. But I'm willing to talk.”

Fuller went so far as to make the case for socialization and said he'd floated the idea years ago of selling all his Ulster assets — which include 430 customers in Mount Marion, High Falls, Pine Lane in Hurley, West Hurley and Boiceville. “You need a licensed operator but it's not a fulltime job,” he said. “They could continue using the current one.” All in all, he said, “It would be a lot easier for the town.”

When informed that Hurley Supervisor Boms had suggested that $78,000 would be a fair price for HVWC's Hurley facilities, Fuller scoffed. “I don't think that will work,” he said. “No set number but just to replace the physical plant alone would cost several times that. (The company's most recent annual report to the PSC, for fiscal year 2019, values its power and pumping equipment at $180,000 for all Ulster facilities.)

Boms, unaware of Fuller's letter when Kingston Wire reached out to him for comment Thursday, said, “We're not going to do it if the figure's outrageous. But for him it's the smart thing to do, to get out. You resolve the thing or you let it fester.” 

Boms asked Kingston Wire for Fuller's phone number, which we provided. But we have not yet heard if the two spoke or to what result.

The local official most enthused at the prospect of socialized water has to be Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha, also an activist with the Democratic Socialists of America and who has also campaigned for publicly owned power to replace Central Hudson Gas & Electric Co.

In a statement to Kingston Wire, she wrote, “I of course think water should not be owned by private companies, it should be publicly owned, and ideally we should have buckets of money available either at the federal or state level for counties and other municipalities to be able to buy failing water companies. … Dutchess County already has an example where it took over a failing water company, and our office has spoken to representatives there to understand how they did it, and we have also previously met with the Ulster County Executive to discuss the option of doing the same for Hudson Valley Water Company. This is an ongoing conversation for our office that we're interested in pursuing.”

Here at Kingston Wire, we'll pursue that pursuit.

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