Labor Leaders and Ratepayer Advocates Warn Wilkes-Barre Officials Against Municipal Sewer System Privatization
Utility union leaders and consumer advocates presented evidence to Wilkes-Barre City Council warning that privatizing the city's municipal sewer assets will trigger severe long-term rate hikes for local homeowners once temporary freezes expire.
Choseno Civic News Desk September 4, 2026 2 min read US
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Labor union leadership representing regional water and wastewater utility workers formally petitioned Wilkes-Barre City Council this week, presenting detailed financial case studies warning municipal leaders that selling the city’s sanitary sewer system to an investor-owned corporation would subject residential ratepayers to steep, compounding utility bill increases.
The municipal administration under Mayor George C. Brown initiated a formal exploration of selling the city-owned sewer collection network earlier this year, retaining financial advisory consultants to assess whether privatizing the century-old underground infrastructure could generate an immediate multi-million-dollar windfall to stabilize municipal pensions, fund road repaving, and address deferred maintenance.
However, during recent council work sessions, utility labor representatives and consumer advocacy organizations urged municipal lawmakers to reject privatization. Union leaders cited statewide rate data collected under Pennsylvania’s Act 12—a 2016 state statute that enables private water companies to acquire municipal systems at appraised fair-market values rather than depreciated original costs, subsequently passing acquisition costs directly onto customer rate bases through Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) rate filings.
Union leadership pointed to multiple Pennsylvania municipalities where privatized sewer transitions were initially sold to the public with promises of two- or three-year rate stabilization caps, only for local homeowners to face seventy to one-hundred-percent rate spikes once statutory lock-in periods elapsed.
“Selling a municipal sewer system provides an alluring short-term cash injection for City Hall, but it acts as a permanent, unregulated tax on local homeowners and small business owners for decades to come,” labor leaders argued during the council presentation. “Once a public asset is transferred to a private, for-profit utility conglomerate answering to Wall Street shareholders, local elected officials lose all governing authority over future rate increases, service standards, and local workforce guarantees.”
City Council members have expressed divergent perspectives regarding the potential transaction. While proponents emphasize that Wilkes-Barre faces tens of millions of dollars in EPA consent decree mandates and crumbling underground stormwater mains that the city's general operating fund cannot easily finance without municipal tax hikes, skeptics on council cautioned against rushing into irrevocable asset sales.
Privatization debates have gained heightened visibility across Pennsylvania, prompting legislative proposals in Harrisburg under Governor Josh Shapiro's administration to reform Act 12 valuation mechanisms and enhance ratepayer notification requirements before municipal utility assets can be certified for private transfer.
Wilkes-Barre City Council is expected to review the complete financial feasibility evaluation and environmental assessment from its municipal consultants later this autumn before deciding whether to issue a formal Request for Proposals (RFP) to private utility suitors.
