WAPA responds to erroneous report of rate hike

V.I. Water and Power Authority CEO Andrew Smith responded Wednesday to an erroneous report that the Authority intends to raise rates by 39%, and emphasized that “there’s no intent to raise rates.”

A front-page article in The St. Croix Avis caused a furor on social media over the headline, “WAPA hopes to increase rates by 39%.”

The article cited a strategic plan posted on WAPA’s website, but misconstrued statements made in that plan, which largely reiterated testimony Smith already gave at a senate hearing in May.

“Nowhere in the strategic plan posted on the Authority’s website is a rate increase discussed. I have never made the statement, in public or in private, that the Authority intends to increase rates by 39%,” Smith said in a prepared statement.

“What the strategic plan posted on our website outlines, and what I have repeated in my public and private comments, is that our current cost of serving our customers is 39% higher than the rate we charge. That does not mean that there is an intent to increase rates by 39%. The Water and Power Authority has absorbed those increased costs and protected our customers from our high actual cost of serving our customers. This is partially being made possible by strategic assistance from the Government of the Virgin Islands that helps to offset the current high cost of fuel,” according to the statement.

Smith emphasized that point in a telephone interview with The Daily News Wednesday, and said that certain portions of the redacted plan will be made public soon.