California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

And so I give the Biden administration credit for trying to push through the PFAS treatment, get the EPA to move quicker. I think that’s really important. But you’ll have compliance lags on the municipal side, where I don’t think you’re going to have that same problem on the investor owned side.

Jim Lynch: Yes. And I think as a result of Marty’s observations on that we do think that as with any new regulation that comes out, it will put financial stress on some systems and that may open up the market. And yes, if we believe we could assist the customers in those markets, we would be interested in taking a look at those systems.

Marty Kropelnicki: Right. But even then, Jimmy, one of the things that happens, we take over a system, we got liability day one. So if you look at some of the work we’ve done, like in New Mexico or we’ve taken over trouble systems, we work very closely with the regulator to get the rates paid upfront before we buy them, that we have an implementation timeline, so we don’t get pinged on the backside with these penalties and fines because, I think in the water world, the investor owned utilities are the deep pocket for the regulators to define.

Davis Sunderland: Fair enough [indiscernible] the time, guys.

Marty Kropelnicki: All right, Davis, thank you.

Jim Lynch: Thank you.

Marty Kropelnicki: Jim. Good ears. That was impressive. You could decipher that.

Operator: Thank you. As of right now, we don’t have any raised hands, so I’d like to hand back over to the management for the final remarks.

Marty Kropelnicki: All right, Ellie, thank you. Well, everyone, thanks for joining us today. Obviously, there’s a lot going on, but at least one thing is off the list, the 2021 general rate case that’s in the rearview mirror. Obviously, there’s a lot of work to do on the tariffs and filing the required documentation with the commission to start the collection of the retroactive piece. We’ll be in a better position on our Q2 earnings call to talk about that. And then in between now and then, we’ll be working on our 2024 general rate case and preparing for the state Supreme Court or arguments on May 8. So thank you for joining us today, and we look forward to talking to everyone really, really soon. Have a good day.

Operator: Thank you all for attending today’s conference call. We hope you have a wonderful day. You may now all disconnect to the session.