Harris Beach Murtha’s Dan Canavan recently received mention in the Hartford Business Journal for his work with the Aquarion Water Authority, Connecticut’s largest water utility.

The utility is challenging nearly a million dollars in state regulatory fees billed to it for oversight by the Public Utilities Regulatory. Aquarion contends it is being billed for oversight in the fiscal year that began July 1, which is after the utility came under public ownership on June 30, ending PUARA oversight. Dan, a member of our Energy Industry Team, petitioned PURA to drop the charges, which the publication noted:

“PURA will expend no resources overseeing these entities during Fiscal Year 2027 and AWA’s ratepayers will receive no meaningful benefit from PURA’s services,” attorney Daniel R. Canavan of Harris Beach Murtha Cullina wrote in the petition.

According to the Business Journal, Aquarion, a public entity created by the legislature, owns Aquarion Water Co. of Connecticut and Torrington Water Co. Its rates are now set by a Representative Policy Board of appointees from the municipalities it serves, and it shares an executive team with the SouthCentral Connecticut Regional Water Authority.

Tina Lazzaris, a fiscal administrative supervisor at the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said the charges remain due based on revenue generated while the company was under oversight.

“The assessment is not an advance charge for the upcoming fiscal year, but a statutory fee based on revenue collected during the reporting year,” Lazzaris wrote in a Sept. 9 email included in Aquarion’s filing.

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