Company: AWK
Filing Date: 2025-02-19
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001410636-25-000022
Chunk: 72

Company: American Water Works Company, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-19
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 72
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 difficulty complying with, environmental, health, safety, consumer privacy, water quality, and water quality accountability laws and regulations to which our operations are subject;

•changing or placing additional limitations on change in control requirements relating to any concentration of ownership of our common stock;

•making it easier for governmental entities to convert our assets to public ownership via condemnation, eminent domain or other similar process, or for governmental agencies or private plaintiffs to assess liability against us for damages under these or similar processes;

•increasing the costs and/or difficulty of complying with proposed changes to federal contractor affirmative action audits;

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•placing limitations, prohibitions or other requirements with respect to the sharing of information and participation in transactions by or between a regulated subsidiary and us or our other affiliates, including Service Company and any of our other subsidiaries;

•restricting or prohibiting our extraction of water from rivers, streams, reservoirs or aquifers; and

•revoking or altering the terms of a CPCN issued to us by a PUC or other governmental authority.

Regulatory and environmental risks associated with the collection, treatment and disposal of wastewater may impose significant costs and liabilities.

The wastewater collection, treatment and disposal operations of our subsidiaries are subject to substantial regulation and involve environmental risks. If collection, treatment or disposal systems fail, overflow, or do not operate properly, untreated or inadequately treated wastewater or other contaminants could spill onto nearby properties or into nearby streams and rivers, causing damage to persons or property, injury to aquatic life and economic damages. This risk is most acute during periods of substantial rainfall or flooding, which are the main causes of sewer overflow and system failure. Liabilities resulting from such damage could adversely and materially affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Some of our wastewater systems have commercial and industrial customers that are subject to specific limitations on the type, character and concentration of the wastewater they are permitted to discharge into our systems. The failure by these commercial and industrial customers to comply with their respective discharge requirements could, in turn, negatively impact our operations, damage our facilities or cause us to exceed applicable discharge limitations and requirements. Liabilities resulting from such exceedance events could adversely and materially affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. 

A loss of one or more large industrial or commercial customers could have a material adverse impact upon the results of operations of one or more of our Regulated Businesses.

Adverse economic conditions may cause our customers, particularly industrial and large commercial customers, to curtail operations. A curtailment of operations