(Washington, DC) This week, the three principal rating agencies all upgraded the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) to a double A minus credit rating. Moody’s Investors Service, Standard and Poor’s and Fitch Ratings all upgraded WASA’s senior lien revenue bonds to "Aa3 / AA- / AA-," respectively. With these rating upgrades, WASA joins an elite group of utilities with ratings in the Aa category, the second highest rating category available to state and local municipal bond issuers.

The rating agencies noted WASA’s strong financial management, diverse customer base and strength of the management team as major positives.

WASA Board Chairman Glenn S. Gerstell said, "This is great news for both WASA and more importantly, its customers. For WASA, this is independent recognition of the fact that our management team has built our financial house on an excellent foundation. For our customers, since WASA will now be able to pay lower interest rates on our bonds, our customers' water and sewer bills will be lower than if we hadn't received these credit upgrades. As a lawyer in private practice, I have seen firsthand how my infrastructure clients benefit from higher credit ratings and the resulting lower interest rates, and I am delighted that WASA and its customers will continue to obtain these benefits too."

Gerstell, a resident of the District of Columbia and managing partner in the Washington office of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP specializing in infrastructure financing, added that WASA’s customers include Montgomery and Prince George’s counties in Maryland and Fairfax and Loudoun counties in Virginia and all have superior credit ratings. "We have a strong partnership with these jurisdictions, as we provide service to them at our Blue Plains Wastewater Treatment Plant. They have contributed to and been supportive of our capital and operational projects and share in this success."

WASA General Manager, Jerry N. Johnson commented that," WASA has built and sustained a team that is focused on exploring every avenue to keep costs down for our customers. While this is not one of the things people think about every day when paying bills, it definitely has a positive impact on keeping bills lower for our ratepayers."

WASA was rated as "A+" prior to the upgrades and was unrated when it began operations in the fall of 1996.

In late July, WASA plans to issue approximately $170 million of new bonds to refinance existing commercial paper and to pay for new capital projects. This will be its first long-term bond issue since 1998.

WASA officials further explained that the better the bond rating, the lower the interest rate is on borrowing when paying for its ten-year, $1.6 billion capital improvement program to upgrade the city’s water and sewer infrastructure.

WASA is an independent agency of the District of Columbia government and serves over 500,000 residents in the District by delivering drinking water and collecting and treating wastewater. WASA also serves approximately 1.6 million people in the surrounding counties of Montgomery and Prince George’s in Maryland and Fairfax and Loudoun in Virginia with wastewater treatment services at the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant.