We live on Hudson Road. We own our home. We received a letter from Tidewater Utilities Inc. so I called and spoke to the signer, Joseph C. Cuccinello.
The first page was a fluff piece about the company. The second page was a petition for both Kathy and I to sign. The petition asked for our property to be “included in the service territory of Tidewater Utilities.”
By signing the petition we would agree to being in the service territory of Tidewater Utilities “permanently.” As such, we may be precluded from obtaining a permit for a new well in the future.
Tidewater is offering nothing in the way of compensation to the property owners for permanently signing away certain of their rights.
We lived in Colorado before moving to Delaware. We owned a home. We were not allowed to drill a well. We had to buy our water from a private individual who owned the water rights in our area. A mining company owned the rights to the ground beneath our property for mining purposes. The mining company could choose to mine beneath us - that included doing horizontal well drilling.
Joseph and I had a pleasant talk. He was patient. He maintained the company line. In the end, he said, “It’s what we do to grow.” That was his justification for asking people to sign away some of their rights permanently without compensation. He discussed my business. He asked me what I would do if I were in his company’s circumstance and needed to do this in order to grow my business. I told him I would go into another business.
This is all about (over) developing our area. I am not an advocate for overdevelopment. I wonder how many people will just sign this without fully realizing exactly what they are doing and the implications of it.
There is a paragraph that warns you that if you sign, your “property may have to remain in Tidewater Utilities Inc. service territory permanently” and another that states it “may affect my ability to obtain a permit for a new well.” That paragraph reminds me of the health warnings they put on cigarette packages. Those warnings are there to protect tobacco companies from product liabilities. They are not there to protect smokers.
We have a well, and every year I have the water tested. It’s nice not to have to buy our water.
Brendan Buschi
Milton
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