Here is why we did it. Here is what it costs. Here are the competitive bids, the engineering studies. They have experts on the other side of the table who can challenge that, so there is a check and balance against just arbitrary investments. He also cited another check on the company s incentive to overbuild.
Capital is hard to come by.
There are a lot of needs, and there is competition for that capital. No history of overbuilding Thornburg also said his company does not have a history of overbuilding. Jim Merciel, an engineer on the staff of the PSC, has never in the 23 years he has worked for the state agency disallowed or disapproved any portion of a capital improvement made by Missouri-American. Merciel said his 100 percent record of siding with the company stems from the fact that the company does not have a history of overbuilding. In fact, he argues that owners of water systems usually don t want to invest in their aging infrastructures, and have to be pushed to do so.