United Water to Manage Nassau Wastewater for $1.2 Billion

Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) — The United Water unit of Suez
Environnement Co.
, Europe’s second-biggest water utility, signed
a 20-year contract to operate and maintain Nassau County’s
sewers for $1.2 billion.

The agreement, expected to save the New York county at
least $230 million, was announced in part in June and is the
largest of its kind in the U.S., Harrington Park, New Jersey-based United Water said today. The company previously agreed to
manage the water system in Bayonne, New Jersey, for $307 million
as local governments turn more to public-private partnerships to
help fund costly infrastructure needs.

“This whole process started three years ago — the county
wanted to structure the transition very similar to the one we
executed in Bayonne,” United Water Chief Executive Officer
Bertrand Camus said in a telephone interview. “There’s
definitely a trend to find innovative solutions not only for
water and wastewater but for transportation and education.”

Nassau County, on Long Island, will pay United Water about
$57.4 million annually over the life of the sewage contract for
a system that serves 1.3 million customers. The county also is
investing more than $830 million, including support from the
Federal Emergency Management Agency, to repair a wastewater
plant damaged by Hurricane Sandy.

Veolia Environnement SA is Europe’s biggest water company.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Justin Doom in London at
jdoom1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Randall Hackley at
rhackley@bloomberg.net
Jim Efstathiou Jr.

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