Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said the sale of Aquarion needs to be reconsidered following a ‘massive math error.’

Tong and the consumer counsel said that the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) missed out on nearly $500 million in potential rate increases.

Aquarion, Eversource’s water company, was to be sold to the South Central Connecticut Water Authority back in November 2025. But a judge ordered PURA to reconsider, which led to another approval in March. Aquarion is the state’s largest water supplier, servicing hundreds of thousands of people across 60 municipalities.

But now, Tong and Consumer Counsel Claire Coleman said PURA missed out on just under $500 million in additional rate increases needed to pay for the sale. PURA was reviewing a compressed spreadsheet that omitted information about rate hikes after 2035, according to Tong.

That number could add an estimated $19 million a year over 25 years to customers’ water bills.

“These aren’t new numbers; this is a bombshell,” Tong said on Wednesday. “A deal breaker.”

This will be the third time PURA would have to take another look at Eversource’s plan to sell off Aquarion.

“$500 million more in rate increases pushes it off the knife’s edge and makes it clear this deal is terrible for rate payers,” Tong said.

The top Republican in Connecticut’s House of Representatives agrees that PURA should take another look, but said the sale is in the best interest of consumers.

“At this point, I question anything that the attorney general really has to say about this deal,” said Rep. Vincent Candelora (R-Minority Leader). “He’s cried wolf about this deal. He’s been against this deal since day one, and he’ll clearly do everything in his power to stop it.”

Other lawmakers oppose the sale and continue to push for legislation that would maintain PURA’s authority over rates, even if Aquarion becomes quasi-public.

“The same oversight that we require for any natural monopoly in almost all gases, in electricity, in water, in many utilities,” said Sen. Ryan Fazio (R-Greenwich).

NBC Connecticut has not heard from PURA on when they may take up the petition, nor has it received a response from Eversource and Aquarion.

HARTFORD, Conn. (WFSB) – Crime rates kept falling across Connecticut in 2025, with murders, assaults, rapes, car thefts, and other thefts all dropping by double digits, according to the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection.

The number of murders in Connecticut dropped from 90 in 2024 to 70 in 2025, as seen in the newly released crime report for the fourth quarter. This decline matches a trend across the nation. The nationwide homicide rate is expected to be at the lowest level in more than 100 years, DESPP said.

“Irrefutably, this is making Connecticut – already one of the safest states – even safer. We are spending more time sharing our resources, building partnerships and task forces, and working collaboratively with our local and federal partners. These numbers are a reflection of that,” said Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection Commissioner Ronnell A. Higgins. “But we know there are still areas of concern.”

Higgins said fraud offenses, particularly identity theft, continue to increase. Arson also continues to rise. A small but concerning rise in prostitution offenses has also been recorded, said DESPP officials.

“We are drilling down and working with our local and state partners to respond to the increase in these offenses,” Higgins said.

Overall, crimes against property went down by 17 percent. The report said the overall number of crimes against persons is at its lowest point since early 2021.

“This is a story of double-digit declines. You have violent crime down. Robbery down by double digits. This is consistent from quarter to quarter,” said Dr. Michael Mascari, Chief Data Officer for DESPP.

Gov. Ned Lamont said the report shows Connecticut is getting safer, with crime down across the board.

“We’re on track for one of the lowest homicide rates in more than a century. Crimes of any kind are unacceptable, and we’ll keep building on this progress with smart public safety policies and strong support for our communities,” Lamont said.

Col. Daniel Loughman, commanding officer of the Connecticut State Police, said the results are driven by the discipline, coordination and effort of state troopers working alongside municipal and federal partners.

“We recognize this progress, but we will not slow down. CSP will stay focused, stay proactive, and continue driving crime down to keep Connecticut safe,” Loughman said.

Copyright 2026 WFSB. All rights reserved.

The faulty hydrants after a recent fire in Waterbury are raising questions about how they’re maintained and what the guidelines are.

“It was horrific, because I was sleeping and I was woken out of my sleep,” Michele Philips, a neighbor, said.

It was a scary situation for her, seeing her neighbor’s home on fire on Bennett Street early Tuesday morning, and it was even more frightening when she saw the firefighters struggling to get a nearby hydrant to work.

“No water came out of it at all,” she said.

City officials say multiple hydrants had water flow issues before firefighters found one that was working properly on a different street farther away. That caused a 20-minute delay and is leading to concerns in the community.

“If that happened to us, what would have happened to my own house, and say if the fire had spread,” Philips said.

Waterbury Mayor Paul Pernerewski said the issue likely stemmed from debris stuck in pipes more than 100 years old.

“We have very old pipes underground that eventually build up residue inside that slows the flow,” he said.

“Hydrants have about a 100-year lifespan. So there are a lot of hydrants, especially in your big four cities in Connecticut that are old,” Fire Chief Dan Coughlin with the New Haven Fire Department said.

Coughlin explained that hydrant maintenance varies by location, with no state law requiring a specific number of checks on public hydrants.

 “It’s based on their needs, their manpower, for example, as well. So it’s different,” he said.

Coughlin said that in New Haven, hydrants are checked twice a year…and they work with their regional water authority for pressure testing.

“We flush them, we make sure we have good flow coming out of them. We don’t put a gauge on it to see the exact number that we’re getting out of there,” Coughlin said.

The National Fire Protection Association recommends hydrant flow tests every five years. Pernerewski said that he wants to go above that standard. Right now, city workers flush all hydrants every year, but he says they’ll also focus on water pressure testing after realizing that it hadn’t been done for over a decade.

“We’ll now have two folks who can go out and do the testing as well, and we can test while we’re flushing,” he said.

Along with water pressure testing, the mayor said he’s working with the fire department to bring back a color code indicating the pressure at each hydrant.

“Anything 1,500 gallons a minute or higher was painted blue. Green was for those between 1,000 and 1,500, and then red was for those 700 or less,” Pernerewski said.

Philips hopes these changes will mean they’ll have working hydrants.

“We’re talking about people’s lives, and you want to feel good,” she said.