from all its customers based on their actual bills incurred between April |, 2021 and the final
effective date of the Order.
On February | 1, 2021, Pennichuck East Utility filed a petition with the NHPUC for a 4.08%
surcharge on all capital improvements completed and placed in service by Pennichuck East
Utility in 2020. The Commission has not issued an Order approving this requested surcharge.
When the Commission issucs the Order, the surcharge will become effective retroactively ona
“service rendered basis” back to a date on or around September 28, 202), consistent with the
date for which Pennichuck East Utility completed its annual debt financing with CoBank, ACB,
which is done each year to convert FALOC borrowings used to fund capital projects for the
previous ycar, to a term loan with repayment terms of up to 25 ycars, The Order will allow
recoupment of the surcharge from all its customers based on their actual bills incurred between
this estimated September 28, 2021 date and the final effective date of the Order. The Company
has filed a settlement agreement with the Commission for this docket, along with the NH
Department of Energy Staff, which if approved would result in this recoupment being billed over
a five-month period of time, once the Order goes cffcctive.
Ofer Events
PFOA Contamination Issucs
As has been disclosed in the past, during 2016, the Company was significantly involved in
assisting the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (“NHDES”) in assessing
and bringing remediation solutions to bear, in light of the PFOA contamination issues discovered
in the towns surrounding the Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics (“SGPP”) site in north
Merrimack. This included self-instituting comprehensive and regular testing of the Company's
water supplies and water systems, not only in the area adjacent to this site, but taking and
processing at Icast two sets of tests at all water sources that the Company owns throughout the
State. This was done in order to detect if any Icvels of contamination existed in the water
sources, to aid the NHDES in completing their statewide assessment, and to allow the Company
to respond with certainty to any of its customers as to any detectable Jevels. With regards to the
water supply systems directly adjacent to or connected to the Mcrrimack Village District, the
Company has been taking periodic regularly scheduled samples since this contamination site was
disclosed in March of 2016. The results of these tests were that none of the Company's water
sources had detectable levels exceeding EPA lifetime advisory Icvels, or the State's emergency
and impending permancnt standard detection levels.
Additionally, at the request of the NHDES, during 2016 and 2017 the Company was asked to
enter into a contract with SGPP for the design of the expansion of public water to residents in the
northern portion of Litchfield, where private wells had been contaminated, in some cases well
above acceptable levels, Based upon the results of that design work, the Company was then
contracted by SGPP to expand the public water system owned by the Company in Litchfield to
approximately 460 property owners, including nearly 10 miles of new water mains and nearly
10 miles of new service lines. The cost of the design work and the expansion of the water
systein has and is being paid totally by SGPP and was contributcd to the Company as
Contributions in Aid of Construction (CIAC), as assets to be owned by the Company, the Town
or DOT (for pavement restoration on town or State roads), or the residents (in the case of the
service lincs) going forward. Also, during 2018 the Company was asked by NHDES to contract
for similar design services with SGPP for expansion of its public water system in southern
