WEST NYACK, NY, OCT 31, 2017 -- SUEZ North America has completed the acquisition of the Forest Park Water Group, which serves approximately 4,000 people through 13 water systems in Putnam County and one system in Westchester County, New York. The water systems, which consist of 30 wells, serve mostly residential homes, condominiums and a few commercial sites.
"This acquisition is part of our strategy to help small water companies surrounding our service territories meet the stringent water quality regulations set forth by state and federal government," said Eric Gernath, CEO of SUEZ North America. "We can bring our expertise and experience to ensure customers are provided with a safe, secure supply of water."
SUEZ has been operating the Forest Park water system since June 2016, when the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) appointed the company as the operator. For the past 15 months, the SUEZ team has worked diligently to resolve difficulties that customers had encountered with their water service. The company has provided technical and financial support for needed improvements.
"Our top priority has been to improve the individual water systems so we can provide safe and reliable water service to our customers," said Chris Graziano, vice president of SUEZ operations in New York. "We mobilized our water quality experts to address some of the issues faced by these individual water systems and we have been making steady progress."
Graziano noted that SUEZ' improvements to date include rehabilitating wells to improve water quality, adding new pumps to improve service reliability, reconstructing an interconnection system to ensure a more reliable supply of water and replacement of water meters to ensure accurate billing to customers.
Over the next five years, SUEZ will invest nearly $3.5 million in other upgrades. These will include computerized operating systems, security programs and long-term infrastructure replacement.
