Aquarion Water Company Subsidiary Recognized as Utility of the Year

Aquarion Water Co. subsidiary Abenaki Water Co. of New Hampshire was recently named 2024 Utility of the Year. Photo courtesy of Aquarion

BRIDGEPORT – Aquarion Water Co. New Hampshire subsidiary, Abenaki Water Co., has received the New England Water Works Association’s 2024 Utility of the Year Award in the small-sized system category.

The award recognizes utilities that have made significant improvements to the water system infrastructure, customer service, staff training, and/or operations to further protect the public health of the customers it serves.

“NEWWA was thrilled to select Abenaki Water Co. as Utility of the Year,” said NEWWA CEO Kirsten King. “Their dedication to protecting public health, going above and beyond for ratepayers, and ensuring top-notch operations make them a model utility for others across the region to follow.”

“Aquarion’s top priority is delivering the highest quality of water to our customers across New England,” said Aquarion President Donald Morrissey. “We’re incredibly grateful to be recognized by the New England Water Works Association for our hard work and commitment to delivering safe, high-quality drinking water and best-in-class service throughout our water systems.”

Abenaki provides water service to 700 customers across five water systems in Belmont, Bow, Carroll, and Gilford, New Hampshire. Over the past two years, the company has made substantial improvements in reliability, water quality, and value to its customers, including:

Installed generators in Belmont and Gilford to sustain water service during power outages;

redeveloped aging wells in Bow to restore lost production capacity;

upgraded filters used to remove arsenic, radium, iron, and manganese in Gilford, Belmont, and Bow; inspected, cleaned, and relined the storage tank in Gilford, resulting in substantial water quality improvements; and added SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) telemetry to all systems to improve process control and provide alarming and remote access to operating data.

The award was presented to Aquarion on Sept. 17 at the NEWWA Annual Conference during its Membership Recognition Gala at the Sea Crest Beach Hotel in North Falmouth, Massachusetts.