When a portion of the residents in Fort Wayne, Indiana became fed up with receiving consistently poor water services from private provider Aqua Indiana, they turned to their own public water utility for a solution.

For some time residents in the northern part of the city—an area served by Aqua Indiana, a subsidiary of Aqua America—had been plagued by poor water service. While residents elsewhere were receiving reliable service from the city’s public utility, complaints in Fort Wayne’s northern region were 250% greater than in some nearby service areas.

To address the problem, community members and local leaders began discussing transferring service to these residents from Aqua Indiana to the city of Fort Wayne. The purchase by the city would transfer 9,000 Aqua America customers under the city’s own public utility which currently serves more than 80,000 customers.

In 2002, Fort Wayne began pursuing an eminent domain action in order to purchase the utility from Aqua Indiana. Neighborhoods voiced overwhelming support for the acquisition by circulating petitions endorsing Fort Wayne’s purchase.

“These neighborhoods have been asking for better water at a lower cost,” said Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry in January. “Several neighborhoods petitioned for City water. Fort Wayne’s water system has the capacity to easily serve them.”

Despite legal challenges by Aqua Indiana, in July 2007 the Indiana Supreme Court ruled that the city could proceed with its purchase. By January 2008, Aqua America had agreed to withdraw its efforts to halt the transfer, and on February 12, 2008 the company begin turning over service to the city.

Transfer of operations is expected to occur gradually over several months, during which time Aqua America’s services will be replaced by those of the public utility. Meanwhile, Aqua America continues to contest the value of the system, estimated by two independent appraisals to be $16.9 million.