Editor’s Note: The following letter was submitted by Eric Gabriel as a private citizen and not as a Selectboard member of Great Barrington. It does not represent an official position or statement of the board as a whole.
Editor’s Note 2: The editor is also a Housatonic Water Works customer.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH: Housatonic Needs Action Now
ERIC GABRIEL
The views expressed in this letter are solely my own. I am writing as an individual, a Housatonic Water Works ratepayer, and a member of this community. This letter does not represent an official position or statement of the Great Barrington Selectboard or the Town of Great Barrington.
How much more are the people of Housatonic supposed to take?
For years, Housatonic Water Works customers have been told to wait. Wait for clearer water. Wait for infrastructure improvements. Wait for the manganese treatment plant. Wait for regulators. Wait for the next deadline.
Meanwhile, the bills keep coming.
Now HWW says it cannot pay its own bills.
HWW has been relying on emergency water from the Great Barrington Fire District because its own system could not maintain adequate water flow and pressure. Yet it allowed its unpaid bill for that water to grow to approximately $100,000 over roughly ten months.
Now HWW has stopped construction of its long-promised manganese treatment plant and is once again seeking more money from its ratepayers.
Enough.
In 2024, DPU approved substantial rate increases tied to capital improvements, including manganese removal, the Fire District interconnection, storage improvements and water-main replacements.
Ratepayers were given a plan and charged accordingly.
Today, the manganese treatment plant remains unfinished, HWW says it is in financial crisis, and those same ratepayers are once again being asked for more money.
Before asking Housatonic ratepayers for another dollar, show them what happened to the plan they already paid for.
I also want to speak plainly about something I have witnessed firsthand.
I am a member of the Great Barrington Selectboard and have been directly involved in the Town’s efforts and negotiations concerning Housatonic Water Works.
I have tried to approach this process responsibly.
When funding for the Town’s legal work was challenged at Town Meeting, I stood before voters and asked them to continue it. I made clear that we were not voting to purchase HWW. We were voting to finish the process, get the facts, and allow the state to independently determine the value of this system.
I believed then—and still believe—that was the responsible course.
But since then, what have we seen?
An emergency connection needed to maintain adequate water service. A massive unpaid bill to the Great Barrington Fire District. A manganese treatment project brought to a halt. Another financial crisis. Another request for ratepayers to pay more.
And throughout my involvement in the Town’s negotiations, I have watched roadblocks, changing explanations and blame directed everywhere except toward the ownership and management of HWW.
My patience with this process has run out.
Based on my experience at that table, I do not believe the Town has been dealing with a willing or transparent partner.
At some point, responsibility has to stop being somebody else’s.
The Mercers own Housatonic Water Works. They manage Housatonic Water Works. And they need to answer for how Housatonic Water Works reached this point.
Where did the money go?
Why wasn’t the manganese treatment plant completed?
Why was roughly $100,000 in debt for emergency water allowed to accumulate?
Why have promised improvements repeatedly been delayed?
And why should anyone believe another rate increase will solve problems that previous increases were supposed to address?
These aren’t abstract questions to me. I have spent countless hours in meetings and negotiations trying to find a path forward.
And I am angry.
I am angry for the people of Housatonic who have paid their bills while living with brown water. I am angry that another public water system stepped forward to keep water flowing and has been left with a massive unpaid bill.
And I am angry that while HWW has struggled financially, the Mercers have continued receiving annual raises, even as the company reported another year operating at a loss. How can HWW tell ratepayers it cannot afford to meet its obligations while its owners continue receiving raises?
But my anger doesn’t stop with HWW.
I believe the Mercers have taken advantage not only of their ratepayers and this community, but of a regulatory system that has repeatedly failed to hold them meaningfully accountable.
For years, HWW has faced violations, enforcement orders, missed deadlines and fines. Yet too often the consequences have amounted to little more than another cost of doing business.
When a company responsible for drinking water repeatedly fails to meet its obligations, a small fine is not accountability.
When promised improvements aren’t completed, another extension is not accountability.
And when ratepayers are asked again and again to pay more while the system moves from one crisis to the next, another rate increase is not accountability.
At some point, the Commonwealth has to acknowledge that its regulatory approach to Housatonic Water Works has not worked.
The people of Housatonic are held accountable every month when their water bill arrives. It is long past time that the owners of Housatonic Water Works be held to the same standard.
Governor Healey, I am asking you to intervene.
MassDEP is involved. DPU is involved. The Attorney General’s Office is involved. Our state delegation is involved. Great Barrington is involved.
Yet approximately 850 customers remain dependent on a private utility that says it cannot meet its financial obligations, cannot complete its desperately needed treatment project without more money, and is relying on another water system to maintain adequate service.
What exactly are we waiting for?
I am urging Governor Healey to declare a public health emergency and direct the appropriate state agencies to begin the legal process of placing Housatonic Water Works under temporary independent management.
In my opinion, the current owners have demonstrated that they are no longer capable of responsibly managing this essential public water system. The health and safety of Housatonic residents must come before the interests of the people who own it.
We need a qualified, independent operator who can stabilize the system, protect ratepayers, and keep water flowing while a permanent solution is developed.
HWW ratepayers should organize and make their voices impossible to ignore.
If HWW can stop paying its bills, ratepayers have every right to ask why they should continue quietly paying escalating rates while promises remain unfulfilled.
I am calling on the Commonwealth to immediately provide a lawful mechanism for HWW customers to place disputed payments into escrow, or another protected process, until there is accountability for where ratepayer money has gone and a credible path forward.
Contact the Governor. Contact DPU, MassDEP and the Attorney General. Contact our state delegation. File complaints. Attend meetings. Demand answers.
I have stood at Town Meeting and argued that the long-term future of this water system must be public. I continue to believe that.
After years of failure, missed deadlines, broken promises and excuses, we can no longer talk about fixing HWW without removing the people who have been running it first!
The people of Housatonic have waited long enough.
No more finger-pointing. No more roadblocks. No more extensions. No more rate increases without accountability. And no more pretending that the same management that brought us here is going to lead us out.
Governor Healey: We need action. Now.
Eric Gabriel
Housatonic Water Works Ratepayer
Great Barrington Selectboard Member
Writing in my individual capacity
Thank you, Eric. Many of us have been attending meetings, speaking with our State Representatives, with the EPA, with the DPW, protesting, telling our stories at town meetings, at Rate Increase Meetings…for decades. I agree with everything you said in your letter. Let’s start with where we should deposit all future payments for water? I do not think any HWW customer should continue to pay them. I believe the state should order a forensic accounting inspection of HWW. The state agencies should also be held accountable. Their negligence allowed this company to continue to operate for decades, despite years of customer complaints, public protests and fines. It is shameful that the HWW Company has never been held accountable.
Thank you, Eric Gabriel! Agree 100%!