Hinchey, Shrestha Call for Immediate Service Restoration for Hudson Valley Water Company Customers and New Ownership for Chronic Service Failures

December 2, 2025

11.24.25-hudson-valley-water-company-letter.pdf

BOICEVILLE, NY – Senator Michelle Hinchey and Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha have issued a call for intervention, urging the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) to restore water service for Hudson Valley Water Company (HVWC) customers in Boiceville and shift ownership to a provider that can meet public health and reliability standards. HVWC customers have gone more than 30 days without clean water after arsenic contamination rendered the system unsafe — a crisis the Company has yet to correct, building on years of system negligence and mismanagement.

Senator Michelle Hinchey said, “Access to clean water is a fundamental right in New York, and any company that can’t provide it shouldn’t be in the business of supplying water to New Yorkers. Hudson Valley Water Company’s abysmal service has once again left our residents without safe water, which is unconscionable. The notion that customers should keep suffering this hardship cannot be allowed to stand, and neither can the company’s proposed rate increase. The PSC must immediately restore safe service in Boiceville and transfer control to a responsible operator capable of delivering clean, reliable water.”

Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha said, “The failings of a private company cannot be the reason our constituents don’t have reliable and safe access to water. The most recent system failures have been disastrous, leaving families in the lurch, wondering if their water is safe to bathe their children, if service is ever going to be restored. On top of that, the same failing company, the Hudson Valley Water Company, is filing for a 16.1% rate increase, after allowing their infrastructure to crumble. We urge the DPS and the PSC to swiftly restore service and move towards a sustainable solution for our constituents.”

The full text of the letter to PSC Chair Rory Christian can be found below:

November 24, 2025

Hon. Rory M. Christian, Chair

New York State Public Service Commission

3 Empire State Plaza

Agency Building 3

Albany, NY 12223-1350

RE: Hudson Valley Water Company Cases 20-W-0477, 24-W-0105, 22-W-0357, and 25-W-0328

Dear Chair Christian:

We are writing to urge that you take immediate action on behalf of the customers of the Hudson Valley Water Company (HVWC) in Boiceville (Ulster County), who have had their constitutional right to clean, safe, and reliable water service denied to them for more than three weeks. The issue appears to have been caused by a broken water filtration system that is allowing unsafe levels of arsenic to contaminate their water. Frankly, this situation cannot stand. HVWC has a long and well-documented history of egregious failures to provide even adequate service to its customers. We have brought this overarching and dire situation to you and your Commissioners many times, and yet we continue to find ourselves seeking help time and time again. Our constituents deserve better, and we urge the Department of Public Service (DPS) and the Public Service Commission (PSC) to work expeditiously to restore service and find a long-term solution to help the residents with HVWC. It is clear, again, that this company will not do what’s right for its customers and cannot continue to serve their most basic needs.

In February 2024, the PSC issued an order to show cause to HVWC and required them to demonstrate that they have the technical, managerial, and financial capacities to operate a water system. This order was issued partly in response to a 2023 failure of the arsenic removal system for Boiceville residents. The owner of HVWC claimed in his response to the order that this failure was a “ONE-TIME occurrence.” However, the current situation clearly illustrates this to be untrue. These failures keep happening over and over again.

It is disappointing that the PSC has not offered any public response or update on the order to show cause, nor has it made a determination on the necessity of an independent operator. Now, the same system failure has happened again, and Boiceville residents are once more left without water; and to our knowledge, no clear timeline has been provided for when service will be restored. The fact that this exact issue has occurred multiple times is plainly unacceptable and clearly demonstrates the company’s incompetence with respect to operating a water system and its utter indifference to customer service.

In response to this situation, we must insist that DPS intervene immediately on behalf of these affected customers and take whatever action is at its disposal to provide relief. Additionally, we ask that DPS provide our offices and the general public with an update or determination on the outcome of the order to show cause, and we once again urge the commission to initiate an ownership transfer due to the HVWC’s chronic service failures.

Finally, earlier this year, HVWC requested an additional rate increase of 16.1%, which the PSC has, thankfully, postponed until February 1, 2026. Given the current situation in Boiceville, the previous catastrophes with the operation of HVWC, and the absence of any update from the commission on the order to show cause, we have grave concerns about any rate increase being approved for the company. No rate increase should ever be considered from a company that cannot provide safe and reliable water to its customers.

We strongly urge you to take the present water crisis into account in all future proceedings and work quickly to resolve the situation. As public officials representing Ulster County, we will continue to advocate for our constituents, and we appreciate the Department and Commission’s attention to this important matter and commitment to the protection of consumers across New York State.

Sincerely,